ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Urban Science
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1589016
Performance Evaluation of Old Industrial City Transformation Based on the GRA-VIKOR-Coupled Coordination Degree Method
Provisionally accepted- 1Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, Chongqing, China
- 2Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
- 3China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the depletion of resources, the decline of industries and the impact of emerging technologies, old industrial bases have faced problems such as an aging economic structure, weak growth, deterioration of the ecological environment, and the backwardness of public facilities, which have severely constrained the sustainable development of cities. Although the government has continued to invest a large amount of resources to promote the transformation of old industrial zones, there are significant differences in the effectiveness of the transformation between regions from a national perspective, with some areas achieving significant results and others still facing economic and social difficulties. Accordingly, this study aims to construct an evaluation index system for the transformation performance of old industrial cities, and use the combination empowerment model based on the game-theoretic combined weighted approach and the GRA-VIKOR-coupling coordination degree comprehensive evaluation model, specific regions, including the Dadukou District in Chongqing, the Huaxi District in Guiyang, and the Baqiao District in Xi'an, are selected as sample cases to diagnose the transformation performance and evolutionary characteristics of coupled coordinated development in old industrial cities from 2012 to 2023, conduct an in-depth analysis of the issues encountered during the transformation process. The results of the study found that: (1) Overall, the comprehensive transformation performance of the three old industrial cities exhibited a fluctuating upward trend during the study period, verifying the positive impact of China's policy support and industrial structure optimization for old industrial cities;(2) According to the results of the coupling coordination degree, the overall trend of the coupling coordination level of the three-dimensional system shows an upward trend, and the degree of coordination increases from the "dysfunctional recession zone" to the "coordinated development zone" level. Based on the above conclusions, this study puts forward targeted policy recommendations that aim to provide valuable references for promoting the high-quality development of old industrial cities.
Keywords: Old industrial city, performance evaluation, sustainable development, GRA-VIKOR, Coupled coordination degree
Received: 07 Mar 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Guo and Qi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yunyun Chen, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160, Chongqing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.