Vulnerability assessment of coal-mining cities&rsquo|economic systems in China
中国煤矿城市经济系统脆弱性评价

Coal-mining cities are confronted with a lot of serious social,economic and eco-environmental problems.Though extensive research on coal-mining cities are from many relevant disciplines,few are from the coupled human-environment system.There are obvious socio-economic and eco-environmental vulnerability characteristics on coal-mining cities.Vulnerability analysis framework in sustainability science has many properties of multi-scale,multi-element,multi-flow and multi-cycle,which presents a new research paradigm for coal-mining city.Based on a detailed discussion about the conception of economic system vulnerability(ESV),the essay establishes an economic vulnerability assessment model of coal-mining cities from the aspects of exposure-sensitive to and response capacity for the gradual depletion of the regional minable coal resources.The conditions of minable resources,industrial and employment structures,which determine their exposure-sensitivity to the depletion of regional minable coal resources,create an exposure-sensitivity index.From the angles of urban economic strength,industrial state,regional and infrastructure conditions,the degree to open up and economic conditions of urban and rural residents,it constructs a coping capacity index.According to the model,the economic system vulnerability of 25 typical coal-mining cities is evaluated and divided into three categories by principal components analysis.The results show that economic system vulnerability of coal-mining cities differs significantly in different development stages,city sizes and regions.The ESV of old coal-mining cities is generally high;the ESV of middle-aged is almost in 3 vulnerability grades,especially concentrated on medium grade;the ESV of young is low.The ESV of coal-mining cities presents obvious regional differences,including north to south and east to west.The high economic system vulnerability of coal-mining cities mainly concentrates on Northeast China.The average score of ESV shows a trend of Northeast>Central>West>East.The ESV of southern coal-mining cities is medium,while the northern region is distributed in three grades.The ESV of different size coal-mining cities shows a trend of big cities>medium-sized cities>mega-cities>small cities.The study provides some lessons for the vulnerability assessment of other subsystems and human-environment coupled system,and also gives a basis for relevant departments to adopt some policies for economic transformation.