Research on the Coupling Coordination Relationship between Urban Rail Transit System and Sustainable Urban Development

With the accelerating urbanization and steady economic development in China, the urban built-up area is expanding and the population in the core area is proliferating. The pressure of insufficient urban infrastructure, especially public transportation capacity, is becoming increasingly evident, and urban rail transit (URT) systems are crucial to the sustainable development of cities. This paper collects data related to URT and sustainable urban development (SUD) in 42 cities in China in 2020, constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system, and quantitatively analyzes the coupling coordination degree of the two systems using the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) method and coupling coordination degree model. Then, the influencing factors of the coupling coordination degree of URT and SUD are analyzed by combining the grey correlation analysis method. The results of this study show that: (1) There are significant differences between URT system development and SUD in 42 cities in China. (2) The average coupling coordination between URT development and SUD is 0.4406. More than half of the cities are in the slightly unbalanced category. (3) Factors, such as resident population, income level and urban built-up area, significantly influence the coupling and coordination level of URT and SUD. It is hoped that the research in this paper will advance the in-depth research on the level of coordination between URT and SUD coupling, provide a solid basis for future URT planning and construction in China and even other countries in the world, and make the planning and construction of URT in China more scientific and reasonable, to promote the sustainable development of cities.