An Evaluation and Optimization of Green Development Strategy for the Nanjing-Hangzhou Eco-Economic Zone in China

The Analytic Hierarchy Process and Entropy Weight Method were used to measure the green development level of nine major urban areas in the Yangtze River Delta and the Nanjing-Hangzhou Eco-economic Zone. The results demonstrated that firstly, the green development level of the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou metropolitan area shows increasingly sequential characteristics, with each city generally experiencing a “ladder” over time and displaying a hierarchy in its spatial distribution. Second, according to the green development subsystem evaluation, the Nanjing-Hangzhou eco-economic zone is better than Shanghai-Nanjing and Shanghai-Hangzhou in terms of environmental loading and green governance, but it is weaker than both regarding economic performance, social welfare, and driving innovation. Therefore, this paper focuses on the general idea of green development and proposes optimization strategies and implementation recommendations for strengthening the green development of the Nanjing-Hangzhou Eco-economic Zone with respect to the currently weak areas of innovation, economic performance, and social welfare.