Ecosystem health in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins in China: Regional differences and driving forces

• Ecosystem health index was assessed based on vigor-organization-resilience model. • Ecosystem health of the Yangtze river basin was greater than Yellow river basin. • Yellow River basin showed more ecosystem health spatial imbalance than the Yangtze River basin. • Vegetation coverage boosted ecosystem health, while land use intensity adversely affected. The Yangtze and Yellow River basins (YYRB) are renowned for possessing the capacity to provide ecological protection. Rapid socioeconomic development poses severe threats to the ecosystem health. Therefore, scientific exploration of the regional differences in the ecosystem health driving factors is important to achieve healthy urbanization, ecological civilization construction, and high-quality regional development in the YYRB. However, existing literatures lacked an in-depth exploration of the differences in the driving factors of ecosystem health in the YYRB. Based on multi-source data, this study measured the spatiotemporal patterns and analyzed the spatiotemporal variation characteristics, and examined regional differences of ecosystem health in the YYRB. The results indicated that during 2000–2020, the overall ecosystem health index (EHI) of the Yangtze River Basin (YTRB) was higher than that of the Yellow River Basin (YLRB). The middle YLRB were considered the main areas for ecosystem health recovery. The EHI of both basins exhibited significant spatial dependence. The spatial imbalance of EHI in YLRB was greater than that in YTRB. The spatial regression models can better explain the spatial relationship between driving factors and EHI, and the geographically weighted regression model demonstrated the spatial heterogeneity of influence factors. This study can provide a scientific decision-making reference for improving the ecosystem protection of the YYRB. It also serves as a basis for formulating macro-control strategies and differentiated control measures.