Abstract: Resource-based cities are confronted with the problems of resource exhaustion and seek the breakthrough of the development of resource-based cities.In order to fully grasp the development of the transformation power of resource-based cities, this paper studies the ability of the transformation of resource-based cities, judges the development trend of the transformation of resource-based cities, and constructs a comprehensive index system to reflect the comprehensive level of the transformation of resource-based cities through the transformation of environment, investment in transition and performance in transition, taking the resource-based city of Shanxi province as an example, the index system is validated by the empirical analysis.The results show that:since 2006, the Shanxi province resources city transformation power fluctuation is remarkable, nearly half of the urban transition force is a downward trend; in the spatial distribution, the transformation force of the resource-type city in Shanxi province is characterized by the weakness of the east-west, among which Datong city is the strongest; in the whole analysis, the difference of the internal resource-type cities in Shanxi province is not big, the gap is still obvious; the coordination degree of urban transformation system is low, and 60% is concentrated in a barely coordinated degree.With the development of resource-based cities, the factors involved in the transformation will also change, and the index system used to measure the urban transformation power should be adjusted appropriately to grasp the leading factors of the transformation power of resource-based cities and provide guidance for the urban transformation in China.