Regional difference and influencing factors of the green development level in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River

The urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR) is a key area to promote the central region rise and the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. In this paper, an evaluation index system was comprehensively constructed for the green development level of the UAMRYR from five aspects: resource utilization, green environment, green economy, green life, and support mechanisms. Entropy weight-TOPSIS method and multivariate statistical method, including spatial autocorrelation analysis and geographic detectors, were used to analyze the regional differences and influencing factors of the green development level of the UAMRYR from 2008 to 2018. The results showed that: (1) the overall green development level of the UAMRYR showed a fluctuating upward trend from 2008 to 2018, among which the provincial capital cities such as Wuhan, Changsha, and Nanchang, as well as the cities covered by the Poyang Lake urban agglomeration had relatively higher green development levels. (2) The green development level of the 31 cities in the UAMRYR showed insignificant spatial heterogeneity within the study period. Compared with other areas, the green development levels varied greatly among the regions of the Wuhan metropolitan area, which was a typical high-low aggregation type. (3) Green economy, green life, and support mechanisms were the highly influential aspects of the green development of the UAMRYR, and the main influencing factors were the total value added of secondary and tertiary industries, urbanization rate, and fixed asset investment. The explanatory power of the interaction of influencing factors on the green development of the UAMRYR was greater than that of a single factor. This study is intended to provide a reference for the green transformation development and the coordinated development of the “resources-environment-economy” in the UAMRYR.