Economic, Social, and Ecological Impact Evaluation of Traffic Network in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration Based on the Entropy Weight TOPSIS Method

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 13; no. 4; p. 1862
• Main Authors: Zhang, Liang, Zhang, Xubing, Yuan, Shenggu, Wang, Kai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 09.02.2021
• Subjects: Agglomeration; Air pollution; Annual variations; Cities; Economic impact; Economics; Environmental impact; Evaluation; Impact analysis; Infrastructure; Methods; Outdoor air quality; Social impact; Society; Sustainable development; Traffic; Transportation; Transportation networks; Urban areas; Urban transportation; Urbanization; Beijing China; China
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su13041862

In recent years, with the rapid development of urban transportation network in China, many problems have been exposed, especially in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region. Under the call of sustainable development, it is of great significance to evaluate the economic, social, and ecological (ESE) impact of transportation network in BTH urban agglomeration for promoting the sustainable development of transportation ESE in BTH urban agglomeration. In this paper, 12 indicators in the field of transportation are selected to build the evaluation index system of ESE effects of transportation network in BTH urban agglomeration. By using entropy weight TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) model and the Jenks natural breaks classification method, the ESE impacts of transportation network in 13 cities of BTH from 2013 to 2017 are analyzed from the temporal and spatial dimensions. The research shows that: (1) From 2013 to 2017, the economic impact degree of traffic network shows an annual fluctuation trend, the social impact degree increases year by year, and the ecological impact degree decreases year by year; (2) For the cities of BTH, the ESE impact assessment results of transportation network from 2013 to 2017 can be divided into seven clusters. Except Handan City, the ESE impact assessment categories of other cities’ transportation network have been improved, but the proportion of cities in the transition period is still large, especially the “Low-Low-Low” cities. The types of cities in the transitional period need to be focused. It is still a heavy burden to realize the ESE coordination and sustainable development of BTH urban agglomeration transportation network.