Vulnerability Evaluation Model Of Industrial Ecosystem In Coal Cities And Its Application

In the face of the depth adjustment of the global economy and wild fluctuations in energy prices,the vulnerability issue of the coal cities industrial ecosystem(CCIES)has seriously affected the sustainable development of the regional economy.Comparisons of CCIES health status at a regional level are worthy of being conducted both in order to better understand a particular resource-based city's situation in regards to CCIES vulnerability and to discover a meaningful benchmark to learn the experiences in terms of action programmes formulation.However,literature shows that studies on the composite index and method of CCIES vulnerability assessment are limited,despite the fact that they are the key processes affecting the success of comprehensive management of CCIES.In this study,based on the analysis of the vulnerability response mechanism of CCIES to economic fluctuations,an initial indicator system for vulnerability assessment of CCIES was constructed;ultimately,14 vulnerability-evaluating indicators and their weights were obtained using rough set attribute reduction.Based on a composite CCIES Vulnerability Index(CVI),the Rough Set-Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution-Rank-sum Ratio(RS-TOPSIS-RSR)methodology is put forward to conduct the CCIES vulnerability assessment process from an overall perspective.Using this methodology,33 coal resource-based cities in China are ranked as well as grouped into three specific groups based on the CVI score for case study.In addition,by evaluating the CCIES' sensitivity index,resilience index,and stability index,we showed the key problems and their causes,which led to higher degree of CCIES vulnerability.The conclusions show that:First,CCIES generally show high vulnerability.From the time point of view,the majority of cities with high vulnerability did not show significant improvement in vulnerability,even the vulnerability of few cities continue to increase,health significantly deteriorated.Even though the vulnerability degree of some coal mining areas always remained at a low level and demonstrated a gradual downward trend,they face certain problems,some of which are very serious.Second,there are reginal differences in the vulnerability of CCIES.These coal cities whose industrial ecosystem vulnerability degree always remained at a low level were mostly distributed in eastern China,where the economy is relatively developed.These coal cities whose industrial ecosystem vulnerability degree always remained at a high level were mostly distributed in western China and northeast China,where the economy is relatively undeveloped.Third,the causes of CCIES vulnerability patterns are different.Some coal mining areas share similar overall vulnerability degree,whether with high vulnerability or with low vulnerability.However,the causes of their vulnerability patterns are different.This paper has important theoretical value for the improvement of vulnerability theory,the development of vulnerability research,and enriching the coal cities governance theory system.At the same time,it can provide decision reference for the government to make policies and take measures to reduce the vulnerability of CCIES...