Comparative analysis of spatial-temporal differences in sustainable development between the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Yellow River Economic Belt

Facing the increasing gap in economic development between the North and South in China, the urgent problem is whether social and environmental development disparity will increase and thus give rise to unsustainable development in the underdeveloped north. To answer this question, this study dealt with the concept of sustainable development, considering its three dimensions: economy, society and environment and focused on the Yellow River Economic Belt (YREB) in North China and the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YZREB) in South China. The spatial-temporal differences in sustainable development between the two economic belts from 2003 to 2016 were analyzed by using the entropy weight TOPSIS method and spatial autocorrelation. We found that economic recession did not lead to the degradation of sustainable development in the North, where high social progress level made up for the lack of economic development. The economic development level of YZREB was always higher than that of YREB, and the gap between the two increased exponentially. Although the social progress level in YREB was higher than that in YZREB, the gap between the two increased first and then decreased. The ecological civilization level of the two economic belts was relatively low and contributed little to sustainable development.