Evolution of Industrial Ecology and Analysis of Influencing Factors: The Yellow River Basin in China

Abstract

The Yellow River Basin is an important ecological function area and economic zone in China that faces the dual pressure of economic development and ecological protection. Industrial ecology designs industrial activities by imitating the ecosystem and would solve the dilemma in the development process of the Yellow River Basin. In this study, we evaluated the industrial ecology of 100 prefecture-level cities along the Yellow River Basin from 2003 to 2020 using the entropy weight method and analyzed their long-term spatial and temporal evolution trends. We also deconstructed the driving factors affecting the industrial ecology in the Yellow River Basin, regarding both internal and external aspects, using the coupled coordination model and the panel quantile model. We found the following: (1) The industrial ecology in the Yellow River Basin was slowly increasing in a “N”-type transformation trajectory, but the overall was still relatively low. (2) The slow improvement in ecosystem efficiency and the low coordination between the industrial system and the ecosystem are the main internal factors limiting the improvement in industrial ecology. (3) The population agglomeration, human capital accumulation, government guidance, and technology level are all important for improvements in industrial ecology in the Yellow River Basin. The impact of the financial level on industrial ecology in the Yellow River Basin was found to be negative. Therefore, it is necessary to take the correlation and coordination between the industrial system and the ecosystem as the main means and actively and positively promote the role of the external influencing factors to improve the industrial ecology in the Yellow River Basin.