title: Assessment of urban sustainability efficiency based on general data envelopment analysis: a case study of two cities in western and eastern China.
abstract: Sustainable urban development focuses on enhancing urban well-being, while also balancing the demands of urban social and economic development, natural resource consumption, and environmental pollution. This work used general data envelopment analysis to assess the urban sustainability efficiency (USE) and sustainability potential (SP) in Lanzhou and Xiamen, two cities that are characteristic of urban areas in western and eastern China. The assessment indicator system included important natural and urban welfare factors as input and output indices, respectively. The results showed that overall urban sustainability efficiency increased in Lanzhou and Xiamen from 1985 to 2010, but that the sustainability of natural resources clearly decreased. The urban sustainability efficiency of Xiamen was higher than that of Lanzhou, and the sustainability potential of Xiamen was lower than that of Lanzhou; this indicates that Xiamen performed better in terms of urban sustainable development. The urban sustainability efficiency in Xiamen has increased with increasing urban population, and the rate and scale of economic development have been higher than in Lanzhou. The assessment and analysis performed in this study show that cities with different natural resources and development characteristics have different forms, patterns, and trajectories of sustainable development.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100085, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100085, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100085, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chenxing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100085, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Quan
authors.affiliation: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.|Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100085, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunli
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100085, People's Republic of China. wug@rcees.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100085, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hongbing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D057217:Economic Development; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D014505:Urban Population
keywords: Data envelopment analysis; Efficiency; Sustainable development; Urban sustainability