Evaluation and improvement path of ecosystem health for resource-based city: A case study in China

[Display omitted] •Constructed indicator system combines emergy index with traditional economic-social index.•Reliability of the index evaluation system is verified through examples.•Introduced obstacle degree model to identify factors affecting healthy development.•Proposed ecological development paths to improve ecosystem health. Chinese resource-based cities are facing serious challenges in the aspect of ecosystem health development due to the development mode of “Treatment after pollution” and the negative effect caused by increased global competition. Research from the theory and methodology aspects must be urgently advanced. This study innovatively combines emergy analysis indicators with traditional economic-social indicators and constructs the method for urban ecosystem health assessment and improvement path. Jining is selected as an example to verify the method effectively. Research results show that the urban ecosystem health level of Jining constantly improved during 2008–2017, which increased from unhealthy to sub healthy and then to healthy. The five urban ecosystem health factors, namely, vitality, organizational structure, resilience, ecosystem service functions, and public health conditions, all show a trend of continuous improvement. Through the model of obstacle degree, this study identifies the main obstacle factors that influence the urban ecosystem health development of Jining: environmental loading rate (D22), renewable emergy value rate (D7), and the proportion of environmental protection in fiscal expenditure (D19). Moreover, several ecological development paths are proposed to improve the urban ecosystem health level of Jining based on local conditions.