Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Green Development in the Yellow River Basin of China

Globally, nations and regions have pushed for “green development (GD)”, a sustainable development strategy that considers the integrated growth of “economy–environment–society”. As it is an area of China that provides an ecological function and is an important energy base, it is necessary to explore the current situation and factors influencing GD in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Therefore, first, this paper constructs a GD indicator system from a multi-dimensional perspective, measures the GD of 79 prefecture-level cities in the YRB from 2006 to 2019 by using the entropy method, and analyzes the evolution of time series according to the results. We found that the YRB’s GD showed an overall increase during the study period, rising from 0.1261 to 0.2195, but the level was low. Second, we analyzed the spatial characteristics of the YRB’s GD using a spatial analysis method and concluded that GD varied significantly across cities in the YRB. The YRB presented spatial distribution characteristics with obvious “quad-core pieces”, and there was a high intensity of spatial correlation and agglomeration. The spatial center of gravity of GD moved toward the southeast year by year. Third, we examined the influencing factors of the GD of the YRB through the spatial Durbin model. The study found that the spatial spillover effect on GD in the YRB was obvious, and the reasons affecting the GD of the YRB were heterogeneous. Finally, according to the conclusions of this research, we propose differentiated policies that are suitable for GD in the YRB.