Spatial Differentiation and Influencing Factors of the Green Development of Cities along the Yellow River Basin

The traditional development model of high consumption and low efficiency approaches the threshold of resource and environmental carrying capacity, bringing a series of severe social and ecological environmental problems, and it is urgent to realize green development transformation. Based on a multidimensional perspective, this paper constructed a comprehensive evaluation system for urban green development along the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Entropy method, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) model, and trend analysis were used to measure and characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of urban green development index (UGDI) along the YRB in 2008, 2013, and 2018, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was used to explore the influencing factors of urban green development. The results are as follows: (1) the UGDI along the YRB showed a slow upward trend, but the absolute value was relatively low, mainly concentrated in 0.2699–0.3799. (2) The UGDI had obvious regional differences, and cities such as Baotou and Zibo showed a “high-high†agglomeration, while most cities in the midstream showed a “low-low†agglomeration, and in terms of space, they were “high in the east and west, low in the middle†and “high in the north and low in the south.†(3) Influencing factors had different degrees of impact on the UGDI. Economic, industrial, urbanization, and green infrastructure factors played a positive role in promoting the urban green development, while the relationship between governance, technological factors, and green development varies from city to city.