Policy effects on the sustainable development of resource-based cities in China: A case study of Yichun City

Resource-based cities, which provide material support for economic and social development, have been recognized as unsustainable worldwide. In China, such cities have been facing more severe challenges in achieving sustainable development. Despite the extensive studies on the development of such cities in China, they did not answer the policy effect. Taking Yichun City as an example, this article attempts to fill the gap of evaluating policy effects on such cities and explores future priorities. This paper treats the quantitative targets of related policies and planning as multi-dimensional indicators. We consider policy effects on sustainable development based on the distance and direction of performance towards planning targets in 2020. The distance reflects what extent has been achieved towards goals, while the direction indicates the coordination level between various subsystems and indicators. Moreover, we analyze factors affecting the policy effects by grey relational analysis. We draw the following main conclusions and suggestions: (1) Future policies should give priority to the economic transformation; (2) The government should coordinate the development of all subsystems to promote its overall sustainable development; (3) Governments should take different strategies because the determinants that impact the development of overall sustainability and subsystems are various.