Spatio-Temporal Evolution, Spatial Differentiation, and Obstacle Diagnosis of Inclusive Green Growth in Resource-Based Cities of the Yellow River Basin

This study aims to evaluate the inclusive green growth (IGG) performance of resource-based cities and to diagnose the structural bottlenecks that constrain their transition. Using a city-level panel of 37 resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin, China, from 2011 to 2024 (518 city-year observations) drawn from official statistical yearbooks, government documents, and remote-sensing products, we construct a multidimensional IGG index covering economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection, measured through entropy-weighted TOPSIS; kernel density estimation, global and local spatial autocorrelation analysis, a gravity-based potential-interaction network, and an obstacle-degree model are then applied to examine temporal evolution, spatial differentiation, and constraint structure. The results show that (1) the basin-wide IGG index rose from 0.2199 to 0.2845 (+29.4%), with a visible adjustment around 2015 and a stronger acceleration after 2020; (2) environmental protection improved fastest (0.7027 in 2024), while economic growth remained the weakest dimension (0.2408); (3) spatial dependence strengthened significantly from 2017 onward, with high-high clusters concentrated in lower-reach Shandong cities; and (4) the economic-growth dimension constitutes the dominant obstacle (54.43%), led by export-capacity and social-insurance shortfalls. A robustness check with an alternative combined weighting scheme confirms these patterns. The findings indicate that transition policy should shift from pollution control toward capability building, with differentiated pathways by city type and river reach.