1. Introduction
In 2017, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China first proposed that China’s economy had shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development (HQD), which will become the main theme of China’s future development in all areas of the economy and society. HQD is a shift from traditional development, which simply pursues quantity and growth rate, to development where quality and efficiency are the primary objectives. Its basic requirements are low input of production factors, high efficiency of resource allocation, low cost of resources and environment, and positive economic and social benefits [
1]. Fundamentally, HQD does not simply refer to growth at the quantitative level of economic aggregates and material wealth but includes the comprehensive enhancement of economic, political, cultural, social and ecological aspects; therefore, it requires a focus on solving the outstanding imbalances and inadequacies in the development of economic and social environments. Additionally, it means realising a shift in the mode of economic and social development from one that focuses on speed to one that focuses on quality and efficiency [
2]. As an important birthplace of Chinese civilization, the Yellow River Basin (YRB) is rich in coal, oil, natural gas and non-ferrous metals [
3], containing more than 30% of China’s population and nearly 26% of the country’s Gross National Product (GNP). It is also a key area for China to win the fight against poverty and build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, it also has an important position in the country’s economic and social development and ecological security [
4]. In 2019, at the symposium on the ecological protection and high-quality development of YRB, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed that “ecological protection and HQD of YRB is a major national strategy”. However, due to regional conditions, natural environment and certain historical reasons, rapid economic and social development has greatly exceeded the carrying capacity of the basin’s ecosystem, resulting in serious soil erosion and environmental pollution [
5,
6]. In addition, there has been a range of watershed zonality issues, such as the extensive mode of growth, the obvious tendency towards energy and heavy chemical industry [
7], the high degree of homogenisation of industrial structures between regions, the high intensity of internal consumption competition [
8,
9], low efficiency of scientific and technological innovation [
10], unbalanced and insufficient improvement of people’s livelihoods [
11], etc., which are prominent. These problems have seriously restricted the sustainable development of YRB’s economy and environment. Therefore, a study on the spatio-temporal measurement of HQD in YRB and revealing the main obstacles affecting the basin’s high-quality development can provide a theoretical basis and policy reference for promoting high-quality development in YRB.
The goal of HQD is to improve the quality and efficiency of development and to build a modern economic system. Implementing high-quality development means changing economic development from quantity and scale to quality and efficiency, achieving more sustainable economic development, a greener ecological environment and more equitable social distribution. In the past, scholars have mostly studied the issues of quality of development in terms of the speed, efficiency and balance of economic development. For example, Wang Zhanxiang (2017) [
12] studied the influence of factors such as technological progress, industrial structure and population structure on the speed of regional economic development; Niu Liang (2021) [
13] analysed the economic efficiency of China’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and its influencing factors through principal component analysis, data envelopment analysis and spatial analysis models; and Han Zhaozhou et al. (2005) [
14] used kernel density function estimation and factor decomposition to analyse the spatial variation status and spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of China’s economic development. In recent years, research on the quality of development has gradually expanded from an economic to a social dimension. Research on high-quality development has continued to deepen and is mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) Research on the connotations of HQD. At present, scholars generally understand HQD from a comprehensive perspective, for example, Ma Jing (2021) [
15] believes that HQD includes many aspects such as high-quality economic development, high-quality ecological environment and high quality of life. Ren Baoping (2020) [
16] believes that HQD includes high-quality economic development, high-quality reform and opening-up, high-quality urban and rural construction, high-quality ecological environment and high quality of life and other dimensions; (2) Construction of an HQD evaluation index system. For example, Shi Bo et al. (2018) [
17] constructed the HQD evaluation index system based on the fundamentals of development, the social outcomes of development and the ecological outcomes of development. Zhang Helin et al. (2020) [
18] constructed an HQD evaluation index system based on the aspects of high-quality economic development, high-quality social development and high-quality environmental development; and (3) Research on the impact factors of HQD. For example, Xu Pengjie et al. (2019) [
19] conducted a study on the influencing factors of HQD in 30 provinces and regions in China using spatial econometric models and concluded that expanding on opening up to the outside world and improving total factor productivity both have obvious positive effects on China’s HQD.
As an important birthplace of Chinese civilization, the development of YRB has been a hot topic of concern for scholars, and a series of studies have been conducted on water–soil disasters and governance [
20], the impacts of climate change [
21], the functions of ecological service [
22], the directions of industrial development [
7], the differences of economic development [
23], education, healthcare and poverty alleviation and other livelihood issues [
24,
25], etc. Since 2019, the issue of HQD in YRB has gradually become a key focus for scholars, who have focused on “the logical relationship between ecological protection and HQD in the basin [
26], the policy combing, experience learning and development path of HQD in the basin [
27,
28], the coupling characteristics of ecological protection and HQD [
29], the HQD of industries in urban clusters [
4], the HQD of water conservancy, agriculture, transportation and other industries [
30,
31], and the integrated and coordinated development of socio-economic environment [
18,
32]”. For example, Yu et al. (2021) [
33] used the entropy value method to analyze and evaluate the HQD of tourism in the Shandong section of YRB in China; Zhang Guoxing et al. (2020) [
34] constructed an HQD evaluation index system based on the dimensions of economic structure optimization, innovation-driven development, ecological moderate livability, effective resource allocation, and public service sharing, and used the entropy value method to measure the development level of central cities in YRB; and Chen et al. (2022) [
35] used seven urban agglomerations in YRB as samples and established an evaluation system for HQD using the entropy value method to analyze the level of human living environment quality in urban agglomerations in YRB.
A review of the literature shows that research on HQD in the YRB has switched from qualitative research on the essence and connotation to quantitative research on the comprehensive and coordinated development of the economy, industry and even the socio-economic environment, providing important support for promoting the HQD of the YRB. However, the following shortcomings still exist in the current research on the assessment of HQD in the YRB: (1) Most of the existing studies take YRB’s urban agglomerations, with specific provinces or cities as the research objects, and fewer studies have been conducted to assess the level of HQD in YRB as a whole; (2) Scholars mostly understand the connotations of HQD from the perspectives of economic development and ecological protection, and construct an HQD evaluation index system accordingly, while fewer studies have constructed the evaluation index system of HQD based on the new development concept from the perspective of system balance; and (3) Most of the existing studies have used Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the entropy method to evaluate the current situation of the basin’s HQD level, but very few studies have conducted quantitative diagnostic studies on the obstacles to the basin’s HQD based on the evaluation of the HQD level. Therefore, the main research objectives of this paper include: (1) To build a comprehensive evaluation index system for HQD in the basin, based on the following five new development concepts of “innovative development, coordinated development, green development, open development and shared development” from the perspective of system balance, and to adopt the entropy TOPSIS model for the entire YRB as the research object; (2) Combining the entropy-weighted TOPSIS model and the obstacle factor diagnostic model. A diagnostic model of the obstacles to HQD in the basin is constructed to provide an in-depth analysis of the main obstacles to HQD in YRB and its provinces and regions based on evaluating the level of HQD with the aim of providing a basis for the formulation of strategies and policy adjustments for HQD in the basin, and each of its units in the future.