Spatiotemporal changes in sustainable development and its driving force in the Yangtze River Delta region, China

Sustainable development is characterized by the coordinated development of economic, ecological and social systems. The complex relationship among these three systems may well hinder the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. To guide the policies regarding regional sustainable development, this study designed a comprehensive assessment framework, which integrates the development level and the interactions among economy, society and ecology, to evaluate spatiotemporal changes in sustainable development and its driving force of the Yangtze River Delta region, China. The results showed that the sustainable development of the Yangtze River Delta region had increased continuously from the low level to the medium level since 2000. The sustainable development of cities appeared to be spatially uneven and about 24.39% of the cities reached a high sustainable development level in 2020. The spatiotemporal changes in seven factors, including the primary industry, the secondary industry, the tertiary industry, the ecosystem regulating services, the ecosystem cultural services, the population density and urbanization rate, were simulated through Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression. The tertiary industry and the ecosystem regulating services were the main positive driving factors while population density always played a negative role in the Yangtze River Delta region. The dynamics of the driving forces help to identify key action areas for the sustainable development strategies. Moreover, eco-compensation policies help break the imbalance of urban sustainable development and achieve a win-win situation.