Spatial and temporal coupling analysis of water resources-urbanization-ecological environment in the Yellow River Basin

Since the process of urbanization development is inextricably linked to water resources and ecological environment, it is necessary to explore the coupled and coordinated relationship between urbanization, water resources and ecological environment in order to realize the ecological protection and high-quality development strategy of the Yellow River Basin. This paper constructs an urbanization index system based on population, space, economy, and society, a water resources system index system based on water resources status, water supply status, and water use efficiency, and a comprehensive ecological environment index system based on ecological environment pressure, ecological environment status, and ecological environment protection, and establishes a coupled coordination degree model to study the development levels of urbanization, water resources, and ecological environment and the relationship among them in the nine provinces of the Yellow River Basin from 2009 to 2017. The results show that: 1) the water resource system in the Yellow River Basin shows a fluctuating upgrading trend, the level of urbanization is rising steadily, and the development trend of ecological environment level varies, with Shandong being the best and Qinghai the worst; 2) The overall coordination of urbanization-water resources-ecological environment in the Yellow River Basin has been on the rise, showing a distribution of “high in the east and low in the west”. This suggests that: for the upstream provinces the market needs to be mobilized for water allocation, the downstream needs to be upgraded in the water conservation segment, Qinghai, Gansu and Henan provinces need to speed up the urbanization process and make up for the shortcomings, and for the basin as a whole the efficiency of environmental management must be further improved.