Taking the city of Qitaihe is as an example in order to provide practical methods for the selection of leading industries for coal resource cities, this paper establishes the specific operation scheme for selection of leading industries according to the actual situation of coal resource cities based on the theory of coupling coordination together with the coupling coordination for technological innovation. The results show that the degree for coupling coordination of the technological innovation for each alternative industry differentiates with the development of coal resource cities. For example, the average degree of food processing industry from agricultural produce is 0.9. Therefore, coal resource cities should develop some industries related to coal industry, such as coking industry, some chemical and medicines industry and non-metallic mineral products manufacturing, in the near future, however, some industries with greater market and influence potentials and low carbon emissions should be attached much importance to in the future.
