The ecological network analysis (ENA) method is introduced to assess the overall features of growth, development, and sustainability in the economic system at the city level, and is then applied to Tianjin City in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area of China. The economic network of Tianjin City from 1992–2017 is constructed and analyzed to describe the size, efficiency, relicense, and sustainability of system evolvement. The results are as follows (1) the long-term trend of the size indicator indicates that Tianjin City’s economic network grows exponentially at a high rate during the study period. During 1992-1997, the economy efficiency of Tianjin City improved, while its resilience declined. Between 1997 and 2017, there was no significant change in economic efficiency and resilience. The size growth is the main characteristic of the Tianjin economy during 1992-2017. (2) The quantitative result of the network analysis confirms that the growth in size and the development in efficiency contribute 59% and 41% to the Tianjin economy during 1992–2017, respectively. (3) The average value of the sustainability indicator (α) is 0.195 during the overall period, which is far less than the theoretical sustainability optimal value of 0.37. If the theoretical value of 0.37 is a suitable ratio for the human-influenced system, it would appear that the Tianjin economy needs to improve its efficiency to maintain a sustainable evolvement.

Ke Hu. Ecological Network Analysis of the Economic Efficiency Based on Input-output Tables: A Case Study of Tianjin City, China. Academic Journal of Environment & Earth Science (2024), Vol. 6, Issue 4: 15-25. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJEE.2024.060403.

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