Evaluation of ecological city and analysis of obstacle factors under the background of high-quality development: Taking cities in the Yellow River Basin as examples

Abstract Taking the cities along the Yellow River Basin (YRB) as research objects, the entropy-TOPSIS model is used to evaluate urban ecological level; and the main obstacle factors that restrict the improvement of urban ecological level are analyzed through the obstacle diagnosis model. The results show that ecological level of the cities along the YRB has been steadily increasing, and there is a significant correlation with the city size and watershed location, and the gap between cities has declined; the spatial pattern is characterized by “high in head and tail, low in center”. The number of full-time teachers in colleges, the number of college students, living area per capita, and garden space per capita are the main obstacle factors for most cities; the environmental foundation, infrastructure, public services, economic potential, and innovation vitality are the main obstacle factors for the criterion layer. In the future, we should adhere to the concept of basin-based governance, make full use of a series of strategic overlapping effects such as the development of urban agglomerations, the strategy of strengthening the transportation nation, and the construction of ecological civilization, relying on strategies such as green economic transformation, industrial structure upgrade, and ecological corridor construction to build the YRB's ecological economic culture and to create high-quality ecological cities.