Coal-based transformation of cities in Shandong Province,China

This article primarily discusses the issue of realizing sustainable development in Shandong Province, China through transformation. It compares the global energy structure to China’s, as well as among regions and provinces within China. The article takes six cities in Shandong Province as typical objectives, and then using principal component analysis it calculates their flexibility in regard to city shift and restructuring. The main purpose was to quantify the impact of economic activities triggered by the coal industry, a.k.a the energy economic nexus, and to assess the flexibility and sustainability in transformation among the observed coal-based cities.