Due to the decline of resources and a lack of motivation for development, coal cities encounter problems related to sustainable development. This paper focuses on the analysis of the capability of different types of coal cities for sustainable development. We synthetically evaluated this capability for four typical coal cities (in terms of growth, maturity, recession, and regeneration) in China from 2012 to 2016 by using the Super-SBM model. The Malmquist index is used to dynamically decompose changes in the capability for sustainable development. We also analyze the ineffectiveness distribution of the input and output indicators, and suggest directions for optimization. The results show the following: (1) the capability for sustainable development of coal cities in China was low (0.6704) and unstable overall. Major inefficiencies persist in resource allocation and utilization. (2) The four coal cities were ranked in the order of growth > regeneration > maturity > recession. (3) Technological progress was the main factor affecting changes in the capability for sustainable development of China’s coal cities. (4) Inefficiency was mainly distributed over the economic output, and inadequate economic output capability was the main factor hindering the sustainable development of most coal cities in China.

Introduction

With aims of the exploration and exploitation of coal, a number of coal cities have been established in China. They have provided rich mineral resources and raw materials for national economic construction, and have promoted local economic development and enhanced China’s regional economic strength. Of the 118 resource-based cities in the country, 63 are coal cities, accounting for 53%. Coal accounts for more than 90% of China’s primary source of energy and its proportion of consumption is over 60% (Hou et al., 2018). Coal endowment determines the importance of the coal industry in the social and economic development of China. In the foreseeable future, coal will continue to dominate the primary energy structure (Fig. 1). Coal cities play an important role in the construction of urban areas in China. They have unique laws of development in terms of the orientation, mechanism of growth, and industrial structure of cities. However, owing to the excessive economic development of coal cities in the early stages of China’s growth, the lack of scientific planning and reasonable guidance for urban development have led to conflicts among resource systems, socio-economic systems, and ecological and environmental systems that have become increasingly prominent in recent years. This has rendered the development of coal cities difficult to sustain. The serious challenges faced by these cities include a single industrial structure and lack of driving forces for economic development (Ye et al., 2011). These cities have large numbers of unemployed people and attendant pressures, which lead to low standards of living among residents and social strife. The ecology in these cities has been seriously damaged, and some mining areas also pose geological hazards.