Evaluating urban ecological civilization and its obstacle factors based on integrated model of PSR-EVW-TOPSIS: A case study of 13 cities in Jiangsu Province, China

• The PSR index system for evaluating urban ecological civilization (UEC) is developed. • An integrated analysis framework is proposed to evaluate the level and obstacle factor of UEC. • Responsiveness is critical shortcomings factors affecting the construction of UEC. • The obstacle factor restricting the level of UEC in 13 cities in Jiangsu Province are identified. Conducting urban ecological civilization (UEC) evaluation and identifying its key obstacle factors will help to formulate regionally differentiated ecological civilization promotion paths. From three dimensions of “pressure-state-response” (PSR) and four aspects of “Economy-Resources-Environment-Society”(ERES), this paper constructs an extended PSR index system of UEC to reflect the interactive relationship between humans and nature, and integrates the exponential variable weight (EVW) method, technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) model and obstacle degree (OD) model to evaluate and diagnose the regional differences and obstacle factors of UEC in Jiangsu Province. The results show that the performance of UEC in each city shows an increasing trend during the inspection period, but there are significant regional differences. The performance of UEC construction in Jiangsu Province has improved year by year, but the increase in its response index is relatively small, indicating that the response capacity of UEC in Jiangsu Province needs to be strengthened urgently, and its fundamental lies in reversing the GDP-oriented performance evaluation model. The key obstacles to the construction of UEC vary depending on the uneven regional development, but there are some common obstacles in the construction of UEC, such as clean energy investment, urban residents’ water supply, foreign capital utilization, land resource protection, population education quality, etc. It is recommended that local governments improve the top-level system design of UEC construction, avoid a one-size-fits-all governance model, and adopt differentiated ecological civilization control measures according to local conditions.