Spatio-Temporal Evolution of EIWB and Influencing Factors: An Empirical Study from the Yangtze River Delta

The fundamental goal of sustainable urban development is to maximize the human well-being with minimum ecological consumption. Based on the comprehensive urban well-being and ecological consumption in the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2017, this paper analyzed the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the ecological intensity of urban well-being (EIWB). The results show that the regional EIWB exhibited a declining annual trend, where less natural capital was consumed per-unit output of well-being. This suggested a gradual decoupling between urban well-being and natural capital consumption. The EIWB in most cities decreased at different rates and gradually evolved into low and lower type cities. In terms of coupling mode between comprehensive urban well-being and EIWB, the mode of low-EIWB with low-well-being and low-EIWB with high-well-being became increasingly dominant. The results also show the significant spatial association between comprehensive urban well-being and EIWB. The increase in urbanization level, the optimization of industrial structure, and the strengthening of environmental regulations had significantly negative effects on the EIWB. In contrast, population density and energy intensity had a positive and significant impact on EIWB, while the increase of consumption level had no significant influence on the EIWB.