Research on the Coordinated Development of Economy, Society and Environment in the Industrial Transfer Region—A Case Study of Wanjiang Urban Belt

Purpose/Significance Undertaking industrial transfer of central and western regions is of great significance for China to accelerate the industrial restructuring, transform economic development pattern and promote regional coordinated development. Design/Methodology To study the sustainability of the industrial transfer region, an evaluation index system for the coordinated development of economy, society and environment is built, and entropy method and coupling coordination model are adopted to analyze the development index of economic, social and environmental subsystems and the space-time characteristics of the coordinated development of the three systems in the industrial transfer demonstration region in cities along the Yangtze River of Anhui between 2011 and 2018. This paper also tries to reveal the evolution law of the coordinated development of economy, society and environment in the industrial transfer region. Findings/Conclusions It is found that the development index of economic, social and environmental subsystems and the coordinated development of the three systems in cities along the Yangtze River of Anhui are on the rise (from primary to intermediate coordination). Furthermore, the development index of economic, social and environmental subsystems and the coordinated development of the three systems are also on the rise for nine cities along the Yangtze River of Anhui, with narrowing gaps across cities. By 2018, the coordinated development of economic, social and environment system in Hefei and Wuhu has achieved sound coordination, Chuzhou, Ma’anshan, Xuancheng, Tongling and Chizhou reached intermediate coordination, Liu’an and Anqing stayed at the level of primary coordination. In the process of evolution from weak coordination to good coordination for the coordinated development of the economic, social and environmental systems, the economic subsystem development is an important driving force.