Accelerating the transformation of resourcebased cities is an inevitable requirement for achieving highquality economic development. In combination with the energy consumption structure of “coal is the largest” in China, 15 coal resourceexhausted cities were selected as the research objects, a threedimensional indicator system of economic development, social welfare and ecological environment was built, the transformation performances of 15 cities during the planning period of the 《National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource based Cities (20132020)》(hereinafter referred to as the Plan) were quantitatively evaluated, and the obstacle factors affecting urban transformation were analyzed. The results indicated that：1) There was a significant spatiotemporal difference in transformation performances. In terms of space, the overall performance was generally lower than the average value of the national and provincial performance, and there were significant regional differences before and after the transformation. In the early stage, the western and northeastern regions were higher, while in the end, the central and eastern regions were higher. In terms of time, the overall performance showed a slow growth trend, but the dimensions of economic development were generally negative, while the dimensions of social welfare and ecological environment were generally positive.2) The transformation process could be divided into four categories, that is, economic dominance, balanced development, social welfare dominance, and ecological environment dominance.3) During the planning period of the four types of cities, there were differences and similarities in the obstacle factors. The six significant obstacle factors all cover three dimensions, and the ecological environment was the biggest pain point for transformation and development. It showed that the Plan had achieved remarkable results, but the transformation of coal resourceexhausted cities had not been completely completed, and followup policy support was still needed.

coal resourceexhausted city; urban transformation; rationality assessment; obstacle factors