In order to explore an effective way to improve the coupling and coordination between ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, build a high-quality development evaluation index system including five dimensions of innovative development, coordinated development, green development, open development and shared development, and an ecological evaluation index system including three dimensions of ecological environment resources, ecological environment carrying capacity and ecological environment management and based on panel data from nine provinces (regions) in the Yellow River Basin from 2002 to 2021, the entropy-weighted TOPSIS method was used to calculate the high-quality development index and ecological protection index. Then it calculated the coupling coordination degree and the decoupling index of the two and analyzed the coupling coordination level, decoupling state and its temporal and spatial changes. The results show that a) from 2002 to 2021, the level of ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin has been improved and the trend of change is steadily improving. However, the issues of uneven high-quality development in the western region lagging behind the eastern region, the larger differences in ecological protection among the provinces (regions) and the fragile ecological environment have not been fundamentally changed. b) The coupling coordination degree between ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin fluctuated significantly before 2010 and the coupling coordination level was basically imbalanced. After 2010, the coupling coordination degree has been steadily improved, and the coupling coordination level is gradually shifted from primary coordination to good coordination and high-quality coordination. However, there are significant differences in the coupling coordination degree and coupling coordination level among different provinces (regions) . c) The decoupling state between ecological protection and high-quality development in the nine provinces (regions) of the Yellow River Basin from 2002 to 2021, in a few years, it is an expansion connection or weak decoupling, and most years experiencing unsatisfactory strong decoupling, strong negative decoupling, weak negative decoupling or declining coupling. At the end of the research period, most provinces (regions) experience a decline in high-quality development level accompanied by a strong negative decoupling state of improved ecological environment. This paper puts forward the path to enhance the coupling coordination between ecological environment protection and high-quality development of strengthening the flow of industrial development factors, accelerating industrial transformation and upgrading, and promoting the development of digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]