Abstract: Prefecture level cities play an important role in China’s green development process as they are not only the basic unit of regional green development but also an important carrier for promoting regional green development. Studying the green development of Chinese cities is of great significance for promoting the green urban construction, promoting the green urban economic development, and achieving high-quality development. Based on the relevant data of 282 prefecture level cities from 2008 to 2018, this paper uses the super efficiency SBM model to calculate the green development efficiency of Chinese cities. At the same time, methods such as spatial transition matrix, green development gravity model, and dynamic fuzzy qualitative comparative analysis are used to analyze the green development efficiency of Chinese cities from the perspectives of regional aggregation and configuration changes. The results show that: (1) Currently, the efficiency of green development in Chinese cities is relatively low, and there is still significant room for improvement; (2) There are obvious spatial characteristics in the efficiency of urban green development, and the spatial characteristics are becoming increasingly evident. The convergence of urban green development within the region is significantly enhanced, and the transition of urban space has a certain degree of stability; (3) The correlation between cities within the economically developed urban agglomeration is strong, and the spatial interaction between cities in other regions needs to be improved. In the future, more attention should be paid to areas with insufficient correlation ability, and efforts should be made to enhance the connection between cities within the region; (4) During the 12th Five Year Plan period, there were two sufficient condition configurations: “restricted conditions-industrial optimization” and “restricted conditions-talent cultivation”. During the 13th Five Year Plan period, there were two sufficient condition configurations: “development and improvement-filling the gaps” and “environmental protection driven-market leading”. The green development path formed by this has differences in its constituent elements.

Key words: spatial and temporal framework, regional disparities, implementation pathways, green development, dynamic qualitative comparative analysis