Sustainable Transformation Evaluation and Obstacle Factor Analysis of Mature Coal Resource Cities: A Study Using Jinzhong City as an Example

Abstract

Transformation and development performance evaluation and obstacle factor research are standard and important bases for measuring the transformation of mature resource cities. Based on the connotation of transformational development, this paper presents the selection of indices for the construction of a measurement index system that covers four aspects: economics, people’s well-being, resources, and the ecological environment. Taking Jinzhong City as an example, this study measures the implementation effect of sustainable development planning in resource cities and applies the entropy-weight TOPSIS method and obstacle degree model to evaluate its transformation and development performance and diagnose obstacle factors from 2007 to 2020. The results are as follows: (1) Jinzhong City has made remarkable achievements in transitional development. In the past 14 years, transformation performance has increased from 0.260 to 0.711, and there has been a change from the fair transformation stage to the good transformation stage. (2) The transformational development of Jinzhong City presents two phases: the initial exploratory phase (2007~2013) and the steadily improving phase (2014~2020). The four systems differ significantly in their drive for transformational development in the two stages. (3) The main obstacle factors for the transformation and development of Jinzhong City show stage differences. However, as a whole, economic development and the ecological environment were the main obstacle factors constraining the transformation and development of the city. Hence, it is essential for mature coal resource cities to improve transformation in the future and construct a long-term mechanism for sustainable development, cultivating continuous alternative industries and improving the ecological environment and the security of people’s livelihoods.

1. Introduction

Coal resource cities provide important energy support for the national economic development of China. Undoubtedly, they are the core area of energy resource security at this stage [1]. A coal resource city is prosperous in coal but eventually also trapped in coal. Due to the non-renewable nature of coal resources and the fact that resource cities have long focused on economic growth and neglected the quality of economic development, coal resource cities are facing a series of resource curse phenomena such as economic development bottlenecks, industrial structure imbalances, a social livelihood that needs to be improved, and an ecological environment that needs to be protected [2]. In 2020, China promised to achieve the goal of “carbon peak” by 2030 and “carbon neutrality” by 2060 (referred to as the “double carbon” goal), which means that cities and industries that are highly dependent on resources are facing greater pressure to reduce emissions. Resource-based cities urgently need to reduce carbon emissions and make fundamental changes. Therefore, accelerating the transformation of resource-based cities and achieving carbon neutrality have become crucial issues for the government at present and in the future [3,4,5].

In view of the problems existing in resource-based cities, resource endowment characteristics, development stages, and other differences, China has successively issued a number of policies to support the transformation and development of resource-based cities. In 2007, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China issued “Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities” (State Council No. 38, referred to as the “No. 38 Document”) [6]. This is the first guidance document for the sustainable development of resource-based cities in China. The “No. 38 Document” proposed establishing and improving the compensation mechanism for resource development and the aid mechanism for declining industries nationwide, so that the economies and societies of resource-based cities can enter the track of sustainable development. Subsequently, in 2013, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China issued the “Notice of the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-based Cities (2013–2020)” (State Council No. 45, referred to as the “No. 45 Plan”) [7]. The “No. 45 Plan” clearly states that China will basically solve the problems left over by the history of resource-exhausted cities, achieve the coordinated development of resource-rich regions, achieve the orderly development and comprehensive utilization of resources, and embark on a road of sustainable development for resource-based cities with Chinese characteristics by 2020. According to the difference between resource guarantee ability and sustainable development ability, the “No. 45 plan” classes 262 resource-based cities, of which 141 are mature cities, as four types: growth type, mature type, recession type, and regeneration type. The mature resource city is the core area of energy resource security at the present stage. This kind of city has highly unexploited resource reserves, prosperous resource economic development, and no further deterioration of the ecological environment. It is the best stage for promoting urban transformation and achieving sustainable development. Now that the planning period has ended, are mature coal resource cities on schedule to achieve coordinated development of resources and sustainable development patterns? Do mature resource-based cities plan a path of characteristic transformation and development to avoid taking the old path of resource-exhausted cities? These have become urgent problems to be solved.

The evaluation of transformational development and obstacle factor analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of the economic, social, and ecological achievements in the process of urban transformation and the diagnosis of obstacle factors that hinder that transformation. It is the standard and an important basis for measuring the transformation of mature resource-based cities [8]. In 1930, Canadian scholar Innis first pioneered the theory of resource-based cities, using the term “hurricane” to describe the rapid growth and decline of resource-based cities in resource development, which is considered to be a sign of resource-based city research [9]. Since then, foreign scholars have studied the life cycle [10,11], economic and industrial structures [12,13], social problems [14], sustainable development [15,16], and other aspects of coal-resource-based cities from a single or comprehensive multidisciplinary perspective. China has also carried out a lot of research on the transformation and development of coal-resource-based cities, with rich theoretical and practical results. Chinese scholars mainly study the problems [17], policy impacts [18,19], transformation mechanisms and paths [20,21], ecological environment evaluations [22], transformation performance measurements [23,24], transformation influencing factors [25], and other problems of coal-resource-based cities; in particular, the evaluation of urban transformation and the measurement of the factors influencing transformation have become current research hotspots. For example, Huang et al. [26] measured the transformation performance and obstacle factors of Daye, Hubei Province. Tan et al. [8] evaluated the transformation performance and its influential factors of resource-based cities in Northeast China from the perspective of sustainable development ability. On the whole, scholars have used a variety of methods to study the performance evaluations of resource cities’ transformations from different perspectives. However, the existing research pays more attention to the transformation of resource-exhausted cities, and there are few studies on mature resource-based cities. In addition, the research data lack timeliness; most of the data used in the existing research on transformation performance evaluation are concentrated before 2017, and there are few discussions on the sustainable development planning period of resource-based cities. In 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China issued the “Promote the ‘14th Five-Year’ implementation plan for high-quality development in resource-based regions” [27]. This program points out that promoting the high-quality development of resource-based regions is an important measure for accelerating the process of addressing the shortcomings of transformation and development. Therefore, according to the characteristics of mature coal resource cities, evaluating the effect of urban transformation and development and analyzing the obstacle factors can not only clarify the effect of the implementation of the transformation plan, but also adjust the transformation countermeasures in time and provide a reference for follow-up transformation policies.

2. Research Area

Jinzhong City is located in the central part of Shanxi Province, at latitude 111°25′ E–114°05′ E, 36°40′ N–38°06′ N. It is an important node of the central urban agglomeration in Shanxi and a national resource-based economic transformation and development demonstration area. As an important engine of the national energy revolution comprehensive reform pilot area, Jinzhong City is the main coal-producing area in Shanxi Province, belonging to China’s 14 billion tons of large coal bases and 9 million kilowatts of large coal power bases (Figure 1). By 2020, the coal resource reserve will reach 26.77 billion tons, which is typical of a mature coal resource city. However, the rapid economic growth of Jinzhong City highly relied on coal resources, and the large-scale mining of coal inevitably destroyed the local ecological environment. The contradiction between coal resource mining and the ecological environment has become the main contradiction faced by sustainable development, and it is urgent to carry out sustainable transformation and development.

The map shown in Figure 1 is based on the standard map of the Technical Review Centre for Maps of the Ministry of Natural Resources (review number: GS(2023)2763), with no modifications to the base map.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Resource City Transformation Index

Given the complexity of transformation, it is impossible to take into account all influential factors in modeling transformation. Hence, in light of the current development of Jinzhong City and referring to existing research results [28,29,30,31,32], this paper initially identifies the measurement index system in four aspects: economic development (ED), improvement of people’s livelihoods (IPL), resource utilization (RU), and ecological environment (EE) (

Table 1. Evaluation indicator system for the transformation of mature coal resource cities.

Destination	Subsystem	Index	Symbol	Direction
Evaluation of transformation and development	ED	Real GDP per capita	C1	+
		Total retail sales of consumer goods	C2	+
		Percentage of mining industry practitioners among all employees	C3	−
		Percentage of added value of mining industry in GDP	C4	−
		Percentage of secondary industry in GDP	C5	−
		Percentage of tertiary industry in GDP	C6	+
		Tourism comprehensive income	C7	+
	IPL	Per capita disposable income	C8	+
		Registered urban unemployment rate	C9	−
		Number of beds in medical institutions	C10	+
		Engel’s coefficient of urban residents	C11	−
		Percentage of education expenditure in fiscal expenditure	C12	+
		Number of students in institutions of higher learning	C13	+
		Research and experimental development (R&D) expenditure	C14	+
	RU	Water consumption per unit of GDP	C15	−
		Energy consumption per unit of GDP	C16	−
		Electricity consumption per unit of industrial output value	C17	−
		Raw coal production	C18	+
	EE	Industrial wastewater discharge	C19	−
		Industrial sulfur dioxide discharge	C20	−
		Industrial soot discharge	C21	−
		The Grade II standards for urban air quality	C22	+
		Green coverage rate of built-up area	C23	+
		Treatment rate of urban sewage	C24	+
		Industrial solid waste comprehensive utilization rate	C25	+
		Percentage of environmental protection expenditure in fiscal expenditure	C26	+

).

(1) In the ED subsystem, the percentage of mining industry practitioners among all employees, the percentage of added value of the mining industry in GDP, and the percentage of tertiary industry in GDP are used to reflect the economic development structure of mature coal resource cities. (2) The IPL subsystem includes seven indicators, which are divided into three parts: people’s lives, social security, and science and education development. (3) In terms of the RU subsystem, water consumption per unit of GDP, energy consumption per unit of GDP, electricity consumption per unit of industrial output value, and raw coal production are used to relate the supporting ability of resources to social development and the consumption of resources by cities. (4) As far as the EE subsystem was concerned, industrial wastewater discharge, industrial sulfur dioxide emissions, and industrial soot discharge were selected to represent the impact of pollution discharge in mature coal resource cities. The percentage of environmental protection expenditure in fiscal expenditure and the industrial solid waste comprehensive utilization rate were selected to reflect the importance of environmental protection in Jinzhong City.

3.2. Entropy TOPSIS Model

TOPSIS is one of the most widely known classical multiple-criteria decision-making methods. The basic principle of TOPSIS is that the chosen alternative should be as close as possible to the ideal solution and as far as possible from the negative-ideal solution [33,34,35]. In this study, the TOPSIS model was used to evaluate the transformation effect of mature coal resource cities. The basic steps of the TOPSIS method are as follows:

Firstly, the normalized matrix is obtained when the impact of various indices with different units is eliminated through related standardization processing methods.

$$\mathrm{Positive}\mathrm{index}:X_{ij}^{\prime }=\frac{x_{ij}-min{x}_j}{max{x}_j-min{x}_j}$$

(1)

$$\mathrm{Negative}\mathrm{index}:X_{ij}^{\prime }=\frac{max{x}_j-x_{ij}}{max{x}_j-min{x}_j}$$

(2)

In the formula, $x_{ij}$ is the original index data, $max{x}_j$ represents the maximum value of the $jth$ index, $min{x}_j$ represents the minimum value of the $jth$ index, $X_{ij}^{\prime }$ is the dimensionless data of the index, and the decision matrix $A$ is obtained by completing the standardization of the index.

Secondly, the entropy method is used to calculate the weight of each index. And then the normalized weighted decision matrix $Z$ is calculated as follows:

$$Z=A\times W=\left[\begin{array}{c}\begin{array}{c}{w}_1\\ w_2\end{array}\\ ⋮\\ w_j\end{array}\right]\times \left[\begin{array}{ccc}\begin{array}{c}\begin{array}{cc}{x}_{11}& x_{12}\end{array}\\ \begin{array}{cc}{x}_{21}& x_{22}\end{array}\end{array}& \begin{array}{c}\cdots \\ \cdots \end{array}& \begin{array}{c}{x}_{1j}\\ x_{11}\end{array}\\ \begin{array}{cc}⋮& \end{array}⋮& ⋮& ⋮\\ \begin{array}{cc}{x}_{i1}& x_{i2}\end{array}& \cdots & x_{ij}\end{array}\right]=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}\begin{array}{cc}\begin{array}{c}{z}_{11}\\ z_{21}\end{array}& \begin{array}{c}{z}_{12}\\ z_{22}\end{array}\end{array}& \begin{array}{c}\dots \\ \dots \end{array}& \begin{array}{c}{z}_{ij}\\ z_{2j}\end{array}\\ \begin{array}{cc}⋮& ⋮\end{array}& ⋮& ⋮\\ \begin{array}{cc}{z}_{i1}& z_{i2}\end{array}& \dots & z_{ij}\end{array}\right]$$

(3)

In formula (3), $W$ is the index weight matrix and $A$ is the decision matrix.

Then, according to the normalized weighted decision matrix Z, the positive-ideal solution and negative-ideal solution are calculated.

$$Positive ideal solution:z_j^{+}=max\left(Z_{1j},Z_{2j},\dots ,Z_{nj}\right)$$

(4)

$$Negative ideal solution:z_j^{-}=min\left(Z_{1j},Z_{2j},\dots ,Z_{nj}\right)$$

(5)

Thereafter, the distance from each sample to the positive- and negative-ideal solutions is calculated.

$$D_i^{+}=\sqrt{{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{j=1}^m{(Z_{ij}-Z_j^{+})}^2},i=1,2, \dots m$$

(6)

$$D_i^{-}=\sqrt{{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{j=1}^m{(Z_{ij}-Z_j^{-})}^2},i=1,2, \dots m$$

(7)

In formulas (6) and (7), $D_i^{+}$ and $D_i^{-}$ are the distances to the positive- and negative-ideal solutions.

Finally, the closeness degree between each evaluation object and the optimal scheme is calculated.

$$C_i=\frac{D_i^{-}}{D_i^{+}+D_i^{-}}$$

(8)

In formula (8), $C_i$ represents the comprehensive score of the transformation effect of mature coal resource cities, and the value range is [0, 1]. The larger the value, the better the transformation effect of coal-resource-based cities. Referring to the existing results, the closeness degree $C_i$ is divided into four grades [36] to characterize the degree of transformation performance of resource cities (

Table 2. Mature coal city transformation and development performance classification.

Grade	Fair	Average	Good	Excellent
Closeness Degree	0.00~0.30	0.31~0.60	0.61~0.80	0.81~1.00

).

3.3. Obstacle Degree Model

The transformation of coal resource cities is a complex project, and each factor has different influencing effects on urban transformation. In order to identify the main factors affecting the transformation of resource-based cities, three indicators, namely factor contribution ($F$), index deviation ($I$), and obstacle degree ($O, U$), were selected to diagnose the obstacle factors of resource-based city transformation [37]. In this way, we can find the obstacle factors in time and propose corresponding policies.

Firstly, the factor contribution and index deviation are calculated:

$$F_j=W_j\times X_{ij}$$

(9)

$$I_j=1-X_{ij}^{\prime }$$

(10)

Here, $W_j$ is the weight of the $jth$ index, $X_{ij}$ is the weight of the $jth$ criterion layer to which the index belongs, and $X_{ij}^{\prime }$ is the standardized treatment value of each index.

Secondly, the obstacle degree of the $jth$ index and the criterion layer $i$ for urban transformation and development is calculated:

$$O_j=F_j\times I_j/{\displaystyle \sum }_{j=1}^n(F_j\times I_j)\times 100\%$$

(11)

$$U_i=\sum O_j$$

(12)

3.4. Data Sources

For this paper, 2007~2020 was selected as the research stage to measure the effect of planning implementation. The research data were mainly adopted from the Statistical Yearbook of Jinzhong City (2008~2021), the Water Resources Bulletin, and the National Economic and Social Development Bulletin of Jinzhong City (2007~2020). The integrity of indicators reached 98%, and only individual indicators were missing in each individual year. The missing data were calculated by interpolation or trend extrapolation, basically guaranteeing the integrity and reliability of the data.

4. Results

4.1. Performance Evaluation of Transformation and Development

According to Formulas (1)–(8), the transformation and development performance of Jinzhong City from 2007 to 2020 is calculated (Figure 2). The “No. 38 Document” is the first guiding document for the sustainable development of resource-based cities in China. Jinzhong City has taken the pace of transformation with the “No. 38 Document”, and the industrial structure has gradually diversified. In the past 14 years, the transformation performance has increased from 0.260 to 0.711, and the trendline has climbed from the fair transformation stage to the good transformation stage. This is likely because economic development, people’s livelihood improvement, resource utilization, and the ecological environment have achieved great achievements. Among them, the improvement of people’s livelihoods is in a steady growth trend. Economic development, resource utilization, and the ecological environment show two stages of development, but they have also achieved great growth. Generally speaking, the transformational development of Jinzhong City presents two phases.

The first stage from 2007 to 2013 was the initial exploratory phase of the transition. Because of this, Jinzhong City lacked a clear understanding and overall planning for the transformation of resource-based cities during Phase 1. The transformation performance is fluctuating and slowly rising, mainly affected by economic development and the ecological environment. The transformation of resource-based cities cannot change the original leading industries in the short term. Jinzhong City was still dominated by coal-based traditional industries. Undoubtedly, people’s livelihoods and economic factors have played their part. Hence, the government still prioritized the improvement of the total economic output, and in contrast, there was insufficient investment in urban transformation. Obviously, the industrial economy drives the increase in the total economic output but will inevitably produce new ecological pollution. The discharge of industrial waste in Jinzhong City increased significantly, and the ecological environment was seriously damaged. Therefore, Jinzhong City incorporated environmental governance into the key work of transformation and development. Accordingly, the government implemented a series of measures to improve the ecological environment; for example, it proposed to do a good job in industrial pollution prevention, control and deepen the project of comprehensive improvement of the urban environment, gradually eliminate backward production capacity, and promote energy conservation and emission reduction. However, under the dual pressure of economic development and the ecological environment, the transformation and development of Jinzhong City were weak, even declining in 2010 and 2012.

The second stage from 2014 to 2020 was a stage of steady improvement. In 2019, the transformation performance reached the highest value (0.758). In 2020, due to the impact of COVID-19, the transformation performance declined (0.711). In December 2013, the “No. 45 Plan” clearly listed Jinzhong City as a mature resource city. On top of this policy, Jinzhong City made good use of the national transformation strategy, strived to overcome the obstacles restricting urban transformation and development, and accelerated urban transformation. Firstly, Jinzhong City guided the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries; cultivated emerging industries; and promoted the development of new energy vehicles, high-end equipment manufacturing industries, new material industries, pharmaceutical industries, and modern logistics industries. Secondly, the government improved the scale and quality of the service industry, expanded the life consumption service, strengthened the producer service industry, built a modern logistics park, made good use of the National Global Tourism Planning, and promoted the development of the cultural tourism industry. Finally, Jinzhong City took Shanxi Wisdom Valley and Jinzhong National Agricultural High-Tech Industry Demonstration Zone as the engine of science and technology innovation, enhanced the driving force of industrial transformation, and promoted transformation and development by relying on technological innovation. In brief, the transformation performance steadily improved from 2014 to 2020.

4.2. System Transformation Driving Analysis

This paper studies the transformation performance of each system and clarifies the driving role of transformation and development (Figure 3). It is found that the changes in the performance of the economic development, resource utilization, and ecological environment systems are consistent with the performance evaluation of the transformation and development of Jinzhong City and can also be divided into two development stages. The economic development performance showed a “U-shaped” trend from 2007 to 2013, and the performance decreased from 0.329 to 0.258. It is mainly affected by the percentage of mining industry practitioners among all employees and the percentage of added value of the mining industry in GDP, which are negative indicators. Obviously, the economic development mainly depended on the coal industry in the early stage of transformation from 2007 to 2011. The percentage of mining industry practitioners among all employees and the percentage of added value of the mining industry in GDP increased year by year, and accordingly, the transformation performance declined. From 2012 to 2013, the transition path was entered, the two negative indicators decreased slightly, and the transition performance began to grow slowly. The second stage from 2014 to 2020 was a stage of steady improvement. The transformation performance increased from 0.458 in 2014 to 0.786 in 2019, reaching the highest value. In this stage, Jinzhong City accelerated the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, cultivated new industries, and comprehensively developed the service industry and tourism, and the high-tech industry also achieved considerable development. The economic structure tended to be reasonable, and the coal-based industrial structure shifted to the common development of multiple industries. However, it is worth noting that the transformation performance dropped to 0.590 and was affected by COVID-19 in 2020. In addition, it is probable that because of COVID-19 in 2020, the data of economic indicators declined, which caused the transformation performance also to declined.

The performance of improving people’s livelihoods steadily improved from 2007 to 2020. The performance degree increased from 0.147 to 0.736, with an average annual growth rate of 13.6%, which has changed from a fair level to a good level. Actually, Jinzhong City has continuously increased financial investment in the field of people’s livelihoods, giving priority to solving major problems such as education, medical care, and urban and rural development. By 2020, people’s livelihood expenditures accounted for 82.1% of general public budget expenditures. Thus, the per capita income of residents tripled compared with 2007, and people’s lives have been significantly improved.

The resource utilization performance showed a steady growth trend from 2007 to 2013, with an average annual increase of 54.0%, from the fair level (0.075) to the excellent level (0.811). Jinzhong City promoted the total economic output by the coal economy, and the raw coal production supported rapid economic development. By 2013, raw coal production increased by 48.7% compared with the same period in 2007. While expanding the coal economy, Jinzhong City is also improving the quality of the coal economy. Jinzhong City promoted energy conservation and emission reduction. The energy consumption per unit of GDP, the water consumption per unit of GDP, and the electricity consumption per unit of industrial output value decreased steadily. The energy conservation and emission reduction achieved good results. From 2014 to 2018, the transformation performance showed a “V”-type evolution, reaching the highest value of 0.891 in 2018, declining to 0.720 in 2019, and rising to 0.826 in 2020, but it was still at an excellent level. During this period, the output of raw coal and the effectiveness of energy conservation and emission reduction fluctuated, which affected the trend of change in resource utilization performance.

The ecological environment performance showed an inverted “U” type from 2007 to 2013. Jinzhong City was in the stage of transformation and exploration, facing the contradiction between coal resources and the ecological environment. It is hard to find a balance between economic growth and the ecological environment, and this difficulty affected the change in ecological performance. From 2014 to 2020, the ecological environment performance increased linearly, from 0.252 to 0.895. During this period, the contradiction between economic growth and the ecological environment was able to be correctly handled. Industrial emissions have been decreasing year by year. The centralized treatment rate of sewage, the comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste, and the percentage of environmental protection expenditure in fiscal expenditure have been increasing year by year. The ecological environment protection has achieved good results, and the ecological environment performance has been greatly improved.

4.3. Obstacle Diagnosis of Transformation and Development

The obstacle degree model is used to diagnose the obstacle factors affecting the transformation and development performance of Jinzhong City (Figure 4). From Figure 4, it can be seen that the four systems of economic development, improvement of people’s livelihoods, resource utilization, and the ecological environment have different changes in the obstacle degree of Jinzhong City’s transformation performance. Generally, the obstacle degrees of the four systems show a large fluctuating trend. Among them, the obstacle degree of economic development is the largest, with an average of 36.6%. It shows an evolution trend of rising first, then falling and then rising, and then falling and then rising. Affected by COVID-19, it increased sharply to 58.1% in 2020, reaching the highest value. The obstacle degree of people’s livelihood improvement generally showed a “V”-type evolution trend from 2007 to 2020, with an average of 27.9%. The obstacle degree of resource utilization is the smallest, and it fluctuates between 4.0% and 12.0%, with an average of 7.1%. The average obstacle degree of the ecological environment is 28.4%. The trend of change in the obstacle degree of the ecological environment is opposite to that of the obstacle degree of economic development, showing a trend of decreasing first, then increasing, then decreasing, then increasing, and then decreasing. In 2020, the obstacle degree dropped sharply to 11.0%. Overall, economic development and the ecological environment are the main obstacle factors affecting the transformation and development of Jinzhong City. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the obstacles to the improvement of people’s livelihoods and continue to optimize the use of resources.

The main factors obstructing the transformation and development in Jinzhong City were analyzed according to the obstacle degree, the top five main obstacle factors were selected (

Table 3. Major obstacles and obstacle degree in transformation and development of Jinzhong City.

Year	Category	Ranking of Indicators
		1	2	3	4	5
2007	Obstacle Factors	C7	C20	C5	C26	C13
	Obstacle Degree %	9.2	9.2	7.4	7.4	6.9
2008	Obstacle Factors	C7	C20	C5	C13	C6
	Obstacle Degree %	9.7	9.5	7.9	6.9	6.9
2009	Obstacle Factors	C7	C26	C5	C20	C13
	Obstacle Degree %	10.5	8.7	7.8	7.6	7.6
2010	Obstacle Factors	C7	C20	C5	C26	C13
	Obstacle Degree %	10.4	10.1	9.8	7.7	7.5
2011	Obstacle Factors	C20	C7	C5	C26	C13
	Obstacle Degree %	11.7	10.4	10.0	9.2	7.5
2012	Obstacle Factors	C20	C5	C26	C7	C13
	Obstacle Degree %	11.8	9.6	9.5	9.4	7.0
2013	Obstacle Factors	C20	C26	C7	C5	C3
	Obstacle Degree %	11.5	9.8	9.0	8.2	6.6
2014	Obstacle Factors	C20	C26	C7	C14	C3
	Obstacle Degree %	13.0	11.6	9.4	7.9	7.6
2015	Obstacle Factors	C26	C20	C14	C7	C3
	Obstacle Degree %	15.9	14.4	10.6	9.9	7.5
2016	Obstacle Factors	C26	C14	C7	C3	C20
	Obstacle Degree %	19.9	11.3	9.8	7.0	5.0
2017	Obstacle Factors	C26	C14	C3	C7	C22
	Obstacle Degree %	16.7	10.4	7.6	7.2	5.7
2018	Obstacle Factors	C26	C3	C5	C12	C14
	Obstacle Degree %	16.9	11.8	10.2	9.7	8.9
2019	Obstacle Factors	C12	C3	C26	C22	C4
	Obstacle Degree %	16.5	13.6	13.1	8.4	7.6
2020	Obstacle Factors	C7	C12	C3	C4	C9
	Obstacle Degree %	24.8	15.3	14.1	9.4	7.5

). From Table 3, it can be seen that the main barrier factors also have stage change characteristics. From 2007 to 2013, the main obstacle factors were concentrated in economic development and the ecological environment and included the percentage of secondary industry in GDP, tourism comprehensive income, industrial sulfur dioxide discharge, and the percentage of environmental protection expenditure in fiscal expenditure. Also of relevance in the improvement of people’s livelihoods was the number of students in institutions of higher learning. Jinzhong City was in the early exploration stage of transformation, and the industrial industry was undoubtedly still the main support for the city’s economic growth. In addition, the scale and quality of the tertiary industry still had much room for improvement, and tourism had not yet become an important pillar of national economic development. Obviously, the irrational economic structure has hindered the development of Jinzhong’s economic transformation. For example, the industrial sector drove rapid economic growth and also brought serious air pollution. What is more, due to the weak awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection, industrial sulfur dioxide discharge continued to increase, local finance invested less in environmental management, and the effects of energy conservation and emission reduction lagged behind, all of which limited the improvement of the ecological environment. Hence, the transformation still faced great ecological resistance. The transformation of resource-based cities should change the traditional production mode and develop high-tech industries. Talent cultivation and research and experimental development (R&D) expenditures play an important role in the development of high-tech industries, and the number of students in institutions of higher learning is used to measure the status of talent cultivation. With the establishment of Shanxi College Town in Jinzhong City, the number of students in institutions of higher learning has not been a major obstacle to the development of Jinzhong City’s transformation since 2013.

From 2014 to 2019, the main obstacle factors changed, focusing on economic development and improvement of people’s livelihoods. Examples of the main obstacle factors in this period are the percentage of mining industry practitioners among all employees and tourism comprehensive income in economic development, research and experimental development (R&D) expenditure in improving people’s livelihoods, and the percentage of environmental protection expenditure in fiscal expenditure in the ecological environment. In addition, the percentage of added value of the mining industry in GDP, the registered urban unemployment rate, the percentage of education expenditure in fiscal expenditure, and the Grade II standards for urban air quality also hindered the transformation and development of Jinzhong, but the impact was relatively short-lived. The transformation of Jinzhong City has entered a new stage, and the industrial structure continues to be optimized, but the transformation is not “de-canalization”, but rather the optimization and upgrading of the coal industry to achieve green and safe mining and efficient use. Hence, the proportion of employees in the mining industry to the total number of employees has slowed down the transformation of the development of the industry and needs to be further optimized. Tourism comprehensive income was the main obstacle factor restricting urban transformation and development from 2007 to 2017. Jinzhong City is rich in tourism resources, but tourism’s role in the transformation of resource cities has not been fully played out. In 2016, Jinzhong City was selected as part of the first batch of national comprehensive tourism demonstration areas. Thereafter, Jinzhong City seized the strategic opportunity and focused on promoting the upgrading of Jinzhong’s cultural tourism industry. By 2018, comprehensive tourism income was no longer the main obstacle factor restricting urban transformation. Affected by COVID-19 in 2020, the tourism industry suffered a heavy setback, and the comprehensive income of tourism once again became the main obstacle factor. The driving force of high-tech industries in driving urban transformation is insufficient, and it is necessary to increase research and experimental development (R&D) expenditure to drive the transformation of resource-based cities with high-tech industries. Energy conservation and emission reduction are a necessary way to achieve transformation and development. Jinzhong City has continuously strengthened pollution prevention and control, focusing on coal reduction, dust reduction, and other measures to effectively deal with polluted weather. The percentage of environmental protection expenditure in fiscal expenditure reflects the ability of local ecological environmental governance, but the annual environmental protection expenditure in Jinzhong City only accounts for 3.03% of fiscal expenditure. Because the investment in ecological environmental governance is insufficient, the ecological transformation still faces problems.

Transformation and development cannot be achieved overnight but are a long-term development process. In the past 14 years, although Jinzhong City has achieved certain results, the industrial structure is still not reasonable, the task of social and economic development is arduous, and the situation of ecological environmental governance is still grim. Jinzhong City should actively diagnose the factors obstructing transformation and development, promptly adjust the industrial structure, cultivate and strengthen the new kinetic energy of transformation and development, increase investment in people’s livelihoods to protect people’s basic livelihoods, and emphasize the campaign of pollution prevention and control to build an ecological Jinzhong, so as to achieve high-quality transformation and development.

5. Discussion

With the support of “Document No. 38” and “Planning No. 45”, two documents on the sustainable development of resource cities, Jinzhong City has endeavored to promote the transformation of the coal resource industry, improve the clean and efficient use of coal resources, optimize the industrial structure, cultivate pillar-type successive replacement industries, make up for the shortcomings in people’s livelihoods, carry out comprehensive ecological and environmental management, and ensure people’s happy lives. Although the transformation of Jinzhong City has achieved some success, it is found that the transformation and development performance of Jinzhong City is lower than the level of transformation performance measured by Tan et al. [30] for other resource cities in China. The transformation performance is not only lower than the average level of transformation performance of coal resource cities (0.793), but also lower than the average level of transformation performance of resource cities in the central region (0.806). However, it is similar to the trend of transformation efficiency of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin studied by Wang et al. [38]; the transformation efficiency of resource cities in the Yellow River Basin is unsatisfactory, and resource cities with low transformation efficiency are mainly concentrated within Shanxi. However, the data selected by the existing research institutes are concentrated before 2017; there are few studies on the expiration of the 2020 planning period, and the research lacks timeliness.

5.1. Transformation and Development Strategy

Overall, Jinzhong City has achieved some results in urban transformation under the guidance of sustainable development planning for resource cities, but it still faces the problems of insufficient transformation of old and new production capacity, low transformation efficiency, and weak anti-interference ability of transformation. In the 14th Five-Year Plan period, it is all the more important to make up for the shortcomings in transformation and development and to strive for high-quality transformation and development in resource regions. Based on the characteristics of resource endowment and development stage differences in Jinzhong City, we put forward the following suggestions:

First, build a long-term mechanism for sustainable development. It is necessary to continue to make good use of the policy measures given by the state for the transformation and development of resource cities. The government should strengthen the innovation of institutional mechanisms, clarify the relationship between the transformation and development of cities, gradually establish and improve the policy mechanism for the sustainable development of resource cities, optimize the administrative efficiency of the government, and create a good environment for attracting investment. Drawing on the excellent experience of transformation and development of other resource cities, implement government support and policy guidance, and use the “visible hand” of the government to promote the efficiency of transformation and development.

In addition, optimize the industrial structure and promote the development of emerging industries. Transformation is not “de-canalization”, but should be based on the basic conditions of the city, deepen the energy revolution, promote the clean and efficient use of coal, optimize the combination of coal and new energy sources, make full use of the advantages of the whole industrial chain of the coal industry, and promote the transformation of traditional industries to take the lead in optimizing the layout of the coal industry. Implement the regional development strategy of “One Group, Two Districts, Three Circles”; accelerate the development of new energy vehicles, the new materials industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and other strategic emerging industries; accelerate the development of the modern service industry; strengthen the productive service industry and expand living consumer services; build a national demonstration city for regional tourism; and promote the in-depth integration of culture and tourism, so as to promote the rapid development of the economy of Jinzhong City with the cultural tourism industry.

Moreover, promote ecological environmental management and the improvement of people’s livelihoods. The concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” runs through the whole process of urban transformation; strictly controls pollutant emissions; implements the principle of “mining while controlling”; promotes the restoration and treatment of the ecological environment in the mining area; fights the battle of pollution prevention and control; and realizes the continuous growth of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, and green expansion. Securing and improving people’s livelihoods is the ultimate goal of promoting urban transformation and development. Establish and improve the education, medical, and social security system; promote the continuous increase in urban and rural residents’ income; and continuously improve the well-being of people’s livelihoods in the transformation and development.

5.2. Limitations

This study focused on the transformation and development of the mature coal resource city Jinzhong with the support of the sustainable development document for resource-based cities and has achieved certain research results, but there are still the following deficiencies:

First, in this study, the indicators were selected from the four systems of the economy, people’s livelihoods, resources, and the ecological environment to construct an index system for evaluating transformation and development. Due to the influence of data acquisition, there was a lack of comprehensiveness in index selection, and future research needs to continuously deepen index selection.

In addition, this paper only analyzes the transformation and development effect of Jinzhong City from 2007 to 2020, and it lacks the prediction of the trend in the process of urban transformation and evolution in the future. In the future, a prediction model or scenario simulation can be used to predict the trend of transformation and development.

Last, this paper only takes Jinzhong City as the research object, and the spatial scale of the research is single. In the future, multiple mature coal resource cities can be selected for analysis and comparison, or the transformation effects of resource-based cities at different development stages can be explored.

6. Conclusions

During the transition planning period, Jinzhong City’s transition development has achieved certain results, but it still faces problems such as unsatisfactory transition effects and high resistance to transition obstacle factors. Based on the above analysis, the following conclusions are drawn:

First, the transformation and development of Jinzhong City have been effective, and the transformation performance is on an upward trend. The transformational development of Jinzhong City presents two phases: 2007~2013 and 2014~2020. The first stage was the initial exploratory phase of the transition, with slow growth in transition performance. The second stage was a stage of steady improvement. In this stage, the transformation experience and methods of resource-based cities were mature, and the transformation performance was steadily improved. From 2014 to 2019, the average annual growth rate was 13.0%. In 2020, due to the impact of COVID-19, there was a big decline.

Moreover, the transformation performance of the systems can also be divided into two stages of development. The economic development performance showed a fluctuating downward trend from 2007 to 2013, which played a negative role in the overall performance of urban transformation in Jinzhong City, and an overall upward trend from 2014 to 2020, which promoted the development of urban transformation. The performance of livelihood improvement has steadily improved over the study period and is a steady contributor to the overall performance of urban transformation. The performance of resource utilization rapidly improved from 2007 to 2013, injecting a strong impetus for the city’s transformation and development. However, it showed large fluctuations from 2014 to 2020, and there was no significant increase in 2020 performance compared with 2014 performance. Resource utilization delayed the transformation and development of Jinzhong City during this stage. The ecological environmental performance showed a slight inverted “U” trend from 2007 to 2013, with an overall decrease, which had a negative impact on the improvement of the overall performance of urban transformation; from 2014 to 2020, it showed a linear increase, which contributed to the improvement of the overall performance of urban transformation.

Last, the main obstacle factors affecting the transformation and development of Jinzhong City showed stage variability during the study period, but the tourism comprehensive income, industrial sulfur dioxide discharge, and percentage of environmental protection expenditure in fiscal expenditure were mostly the main obstacle factors during the study period. Overall, economic development and improvement of people’s livelihoods are the main obstacles to the city’s transformational development. In addition, the transformational development of Jinzhong City should also take into account the role of the ecological environment and continue to optimize the use of resources.