Design of a sustainable development path in Chenzhou based on a knowledge graph

Sustainable urban development involves many fields with complex data types and rich semantic relationships, such as the economic, societal, and ecological fields. Knowledge graphs provide a new means for sustainable urban development research by leveraging their strengths in the construction of knowledge networks and display of knowledge associations. Focusing on Chenzhou, a resource-based city serving as a China’s Innovation Demonstration Zone for Sustainable Development Agenda, this study adopted a top-down approach, applying the “seven-step” and “skeleton” methods to construct an ontology for sustainable urban development through manual editing. A knowledge graph was constructed for Chenzhou’s sustainable development, comprising 515 nodes, 3 209 relations, and 28 157 attributes. Sustainable measures and pathways were proposed based on this knowledge graph. The results showed that Chenzhou’s future sustainable development should focus on innovation, growth, emissions reduction, centering around high-quality and sustainable development. Promoting the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements, accelerating the optimization and upgrading of industrial structures, and enhancing talent cultivation and recruitment will foster new quality productive forces, providing strong momentum and support for the high-quality and sustainable development of Chenzhou. To accelerate the green economy transition, Chenzhou should improve the market-oriented allocation system for resources and environmental factors, explore the “gross ecosystem product + eco-environment-oriented development” project implementation model, encourage enterprises to adopt environmental, social, and governance principles, and foster synergies between supply and demand. Furthermore, coordinating Chenzhou’s low-carbon city pilot projects and constructing carbon sequestration pathways that leverage nature-based solutions will help implement the “dual carbon” actions and enhance the city’s ability to respond to climate change.