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Abstract Green finance (GF) is recognized as a key driver of sustainable development. While existing studies have extensively discussed the relationship between GF and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), few have explored the coupling coordination relationship between GF and SDGs. In this paper, we use data from thirty Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) from 2008–2021 to examine the degree of coupling coordination development (CCD) between GF and the SDGs systems using the CCD model. We find that most SDGs and their sub-goals exhibit a significant upward trend, except for SDG8, 14–16. GF presents a fluctuating upward trend, with a significant decline in 2010 and 2019. The CCDs between GF and SDGs and their sub-goals generally show an M-shaped upward trend in most regions, with most of them experiencing a synchronous decline in 2011–2012 and 2019. In the analysis of regional heterogeneity, the eastern region performs better in SDG8–9, the central region performs better in SDG3, 14–15, while the western region performs better in SDG7. This paper provides empirical evidence for a further in-depth understanding of the relationship between GF and SDGs, which can contribute to advancing GF development and the SDG process.

Abstract The Tibetan sheep industry is a typical representative of plateau animal husbandry and grassland animal husbandry and is also one of the characteristic industries in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region. The study of this industry is of great significance to promoting the high-quality development of animal husbandry and the region. Based on the production data and statistical data of Tibetan sheep in the main producing areas of Qinghai Province, this paper adopts the entropy method and the coupling coordination degree model to study the high-quality development of animal husbandry in Qinghai province from five dimensions: product quality, production efficiency, economic benefits, environmental friendliness and environmental conditions. The results showed that the high-quality development level and coupling coordination degree of the Tibetan sheep industry in Haibei Prefecture, Hainan Prefecture, Haixi Prefecture and Huangnan Prefecture of Qinghai Province showed an upward trend from 2015 to 2020. Among them, the high-quality development level of the Tibetan sheep industry in Haibei Prefecture and Hainan Prefecture of Qinghai Province significantly increased from 2019 to 2020, but the coupling coordination degree decreased.

An integrated water sustainability assessment is conducive to realizing the optimal allocation and efficient water utilization, and alleviating the water crisis. Existing research mainly appraises water quantity and water quality as unidimensional or in combination, without considering the water benefit, and few studies have assessed the regional water sustainability based on an integrated evaluation multidimensionally. Therefore, this paper innovatively introduces water benefit to construct a three-dimensional quantity-quality-benefit model (QQBM) to evaluate water sustainability in line with the water footprint (WF) theory and water resources balance sheet (WRBS). The impact of the coupled coordination relationship among water quantity, water quality, and water benefit on the water sustainability evaluation is further analyzed by introducing the coupled coordination degree model (CCDM). This paper takes the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) as an example and makes a spatio-temporal analysis of the water sustainability in its 11 provincial capitals during 2010-2021 from a single dimension and a three-dimensional perspective, respectively. The results found that: (1) From a single dimension, the water sustainability in the 11 provincial capitals in the YREB during 2010-2021 is at a medium level, with better water benefit sustainability, moderate water quantity sustainability, and horrendous water quality sustainability. Among them, the water sustainability is the best in Guiyang and Hangzhou, while the worst in Shanghai. (2) From a three-dimensional perspective, the water sustainability in the 11 provincial capitals from 2010 to 2021 is horrific. Among them, the water sustainability is the best in Kunming, Changsha, Nanjing and Shanghai, while the worst in Wuhan and Hefei. (3) The degree of coupling coordination between water quantity, water quality and water benefit significantly influence the water sustainability in the 11 provincial capitals of the YREB. The three-dimensional assessment model QQBM constructed in this study is more comprehensive and objective than the single perspective assessment. The findings in this paper can help other regions to conduct similar water sustainability assessments and inform policy recommendations.

This paper firstly calculates the weights of each system and indicator in the index system through the gray correlation method and comprehensively evaluates the status of the regional rural tourism development and the level of human habitat environment as well as the characteristics of temporal and spatial evolution. Constructing the spatio-temporal coupling and coordination relationship between rural tourism and the human habitat environment reveals the obstacle factors of rural tourism development and human habitat environment development level and the coupling mechanism of the two. Finally, the development process of the rural tourism industry in Kaili, Xingyi, and Zunyi, as well as the improvement and optimization process of the rural habitat environment, are empirically studied. The results show that the coupling coordination degree between the rural tourism development level and the optimization level of human habitat environment in the three regions increased from 0.06 in 2012 to about 0.48 in 2021, indicating that the overall coordination level between the rural tourism development and the optimization of the human habitat environment is continuously improving during the period. This paper is significant for the new path of economic development and habitat-environment coordination in rural areas.

Pseudo human settlements in the information age is an important part of human settlements geography, which has a comprehensive and profound impact on urban production, life and ecology in China and even the world, but the existing research on pseudo human settlements is still unclear, and cannot meet the requirements of China’s “digital-realistic fusion”, “network power” and the construction of a beautiful China. Therefore, this paper starts from the perspective of pseudo, based on the theory of the coupling system of human settlements, and applies the entropy weight method, coupling coordination model, geodetector and other methods and spatial technologies to deeply analyze the spatial and temporal evolution of the pseudo human settlements and the driving mechanism of the 14 cities in Liaoning Province from 2011 to 2020. The results show that: 1) Liaoning Province’s pseudo human settlements in the time evolution of the overall quality of the main theme of the rise, with the “Internet festival” node effect and significant stage. 2) The spatial distribution is characterized by the geographical layout of “1″-type high-quality development centers and concentric-circle spatial distribution; and the trend surface shows a low uniformity pattern of “high in the south-central part and low in the surrounding area”. 3) The degree of system coupling and the degree of coupling coordination both show a fluctuating upward trend, with the spatial heterogeneity characteristic of “high in the central part and low in the surrounding area”. 4) Tool system has become the emerging driving force, communication and social chat has become the basic driving force, and life service is the invisible driving force; communication class and community class are the important leading driving factors. The study aims to enrich the research system of human settlements, promote the development of the discipline of human settlements geography, provide a new basis for the construction of human settlements in the new era, and respond to the demand for decision-making in the strategy of network power.

Abstract The integrated development of agricultural land and finance not only promotes rural financial innovation and breaks the bottleneck of agricultural financing but also facilitates agricultural land transfer and scaled operations. This leads to the advancement of the effective growth of contemporary agriculture. The reform of the 'separation of three rights' in agricultural land promotes land circulation, which, in turn, offers an institutional guarantee for the tandem development of rural finance and agricultural land management. This paper measures the comprehensive development index of agricultural land management and rural finance in 30 provinces of China from 2005 to 2020. In light of this, it calculates the degree of coupling and coordination between China's agricultural land management and rural financial development. The Dagum Gini coefficient, kernel density, and the Moran index were used to analyze regional differences and patterns of agglomeration. The study found that the degree of coupling coordination between China's agricultural land management and rural finance is increasing annually. However, there remains a significant gap in achieving high-quality coupling. Notably, the growth rate of rural financial development exceeds that of agricultural land management, and hypervariable density is a major source of regional variation. There is polarization in the coupled development of farmland management and rural finance. Provinces in the eastern and central regions tend to be located in the high–high agglomeration (H–H) in terms of the level of development of agricultural land and financial integration, while the western region tends to fall in low–low aggregation (L–L).

Abstract This paper examines the coupling coordination degree between digital economy and green technology innovation in 19 urban agglomerations across China from 2011 to 2020. Through the analysis of the coupling coordination degree model, spatial autocorrelation, multi-distance spatial clustering analysis, kernel density analysis and grey correlation model, this study uncovers the mechanism of coupling between digital economy and green technology in Chinese urban agglomerations. Data analysis revealed a significant increase in the coupling coordination between the digital economy and green technology innovation within urban agglomerations. However, there are noticeable spatial imbalances in this trend. Additionally, the multi-distance spatial distance analysis highlights a shift from a random distribution to a clustered distribution of spatial characteristics. The polarization features vary among each urban agglomeration and exhibit a significant positive spatial correlation. Factors such as economic sustainability, creative talent, policy support, digital impetus, and technological support will affect the coupling mechanism of green technology innovation and the digital economy in China's urban agglomerations. Policy recommendations are proposed to foster the development of the digital economy, promote coordinated growth within and beyond urban clusters, and ultimately build a digital ecological civilization that is both green and intelligent.

The coordinated development of green finance and technological innovation is a key driver of China's high-quality economic growth and therefore deserves close attention. But are green finance and technological innovation really coordinated? This study establishes a coordinating coupling system to link green finance and technological innovation. 2010–2021 is chosen as the observation period, and 31 provinces in China are selected for study. This paper uses the coupling coordination model to investigate the development of the coupling coordination of technological innovation and green finance, and discusses its spatial distribution by the Moran index. The results show that, overall, the degree of coupling coordination between green finance and technological innovation shows a consistent upward trend. The trend is particularly strong in the East. Moreover, the coordination coupling between green finance and technological innovation has the spatial effect. And it shows a binary characteristic, with a decreasing trend observed from coastal to inland regions. These results remained valid after replacing weight matrix and sample size.The above findings have important policy implications for optimising the synergistic development of green finance and technological innovation and achieving high-quality economic development.

In the context of pursuing high-quality development, the coupling and coordination of the ecosystem and economy has become the fundamental goal and inevitable choice for achieving the sustainable development of urban agglomerations. Based on remote sensing and statistical data for the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region from 2005 to 2020, in this paper, we construct an index system of the ecological and economic levels to assess the ecosystem service value (ESV). We use the equivalent factor method, entropy method, coupling coordination model, and relative development model to systematically grasp the spatial pattern of the levels of the two variables, analyse and evaluate their spatial and temporal coupling and coordination characteristics, and test the factors influencing their coupling and coordination using the geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) model. The results show that ① the ESV in the PRD exhibited a fluctuating decreasing trend, while the level of the economy exhibited a fluctuating increasing trend; ② the coordination degree of the ESV and economy in the PRD exhibited a fluctuating increasing trend, and the region began to enter the basic coordination period in 2007; ③ in terms of the spatial distribution of the coordination degree, there was generally a circular pattern, with the Pearl River Estuary cities as the core and a decrease in the value towards the periphery; ④ the coordinated development model is divided into balanced development, economic guidance, and ESV guidance, among which balanced development is the major type; ⑤ the results of the GTWR reveal that the influencing factors exhibited significant spatial–temporal heterogeneity. Government intervention and openness were the dominant factors affecting the coordination, and the normalised difference vegetation index was the main negative influencing factor.

China’s economy has entered a new period of transformation, and the development of various industries will become the backbone of promoting economic sectors. At the same time, it will also become a booster for promoting the transformation and development of various industries. As an essential component of China’s economic construction, forestry will also enter a critical period of transformation. However, because the forestry industry mainly relies on forest resources as production factors, there is a certain contradiction between the forestry industry development and the ecological environment. Therefore, taking Heilongjiang Province as an example, this paper applies the PSR model to explain the mechanism of the relationship between forestry industry development and the ecological environment. The PSR model mainly consists of three indicators: Pressure, State, and Response, which analyze the interrelationships between elements within the system. On the other hand, the coupling coordination model is applied to analyze the coupling coordination relationship between the forestry industry development and the ecological environment in Heilongjiang Province from 2011 to 2018. The results show that the development of the forestry industry puts pressure on the ecological environment. At the same time, the environmental climate also imposes restrictions and constraints on the development of the forestry industry. The two promote, influence, and constrain each other. The development of the forestry industry was antagonistic, running in, coupled, and coordinated with the ecological environment in Heilongjiang Province from 2011 to 2018. However, there is still a particular gap in the level of coupling and coordination between the two, and they have yet to reach a state of good coordinated development. Therefore, Heilongjiang Province can promote the coordinated development of its forestry industry and the ecological environment through innovative forestry industry transformation models, policy-oriented rational development and utilization of forest resources, environmentally constrained clean production of the forestry industry, and complementary and shared development of the forestry industry and ecological environment.

To achieve the objective of high-quality development, an in-depth examination of the coupling coordination relationship between industrial green water and science and technology (S&T) innovation is essential. This study takes Chinese 30 provincial regions as specific examples and constructs the improved three-stage SBM-DEA model and entropy weight TOPSIS model to assess industrial green water efficiency and the level of S&T innovation during 2009–2021. Based on this, the coupling coordination model is applied to investigate the coupling coordination degree of industrial green water efficiency and S&T innovation, as well as the characteristics of the spatio-temporal distributions. Finally, we utilize a spatial autocorrelation model to reveal the spatial clustering characteristics of the coordination degree of the two. The findings indicate that: (1) The results of the evaluation of industrial green water efficiency and the level of S&T innovation show that the development of each province is not balanced, and the performance of the eastern coastal region is more prominent. (2) China's overall coupling coordination degree is rising steadily and moving from primary coordination into the good coordination stage. Most provinces are in the primary coordination and good coordination stages. Qinghai remains in the low coordination stage throughout the study period. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Guangdong enter the high coordination stage. (3) The spatial distribution of the coupling coordination level of the two systems shows a pattern of high in the east and low in the west, with a positive spillover effect on the spatial adjacency. The high-high coupling coordination degree area exhibits a tendency to shift towards the central region. This paper provides a scientific basis for analyzing the coupling coordination degree and spatio-temporal differences between industrial green water efficiency and S&T innovation.

When studying the coupling coordination relationship between agricultural eco-efficiency and urbanization, it is crucial to consider food security, especially in a populous country like China. This paper focuses on 31 provinces in China as the research units, covering the time period from 2000 to 2020. Based on the concept of agricultural eco-efficiency, an evaluation index system was developed to include undesirable outputs (carbon emissions), and agricultural eco-efficiency scores were calculated using the SBM–DEA model. An urbanization evaluation index system, covering six dimensions and twelve indexes, was constructed. A comprehensive index of urbanization is measured using the entropy method. On this basis, a coupling coordination model was applied to quantify the relationship between agricultural eco-efficiency and urbanization at the provincial scale in China. The results showed that the agricultural eco-efficiency of all provincial units in China exhibited an overall trend of improvement. Average efficiency followed a spatial pattern of majority grain-consuming areas > grain production–consumption balance areas > majority grain-producing areas. The level of coupling between agricultural eco-efficiency and urbanization is generally low. Currently, no regions have reached the stage of synergy or high-level coupling. Most regions are currently in an antagonistic stage with a coupling degree of 0.3 < C ≤ 0.5. The classification of coupling coordination levels changed from four levels of “severe imbalance”, “moderate imbalance”, “mild imbalance”, and “primary coordination” to “moderate imbalance”, “mild imbalance”, “primary coordination”, and “intermediate coordination”. The level of “severe imbalance” disappeared, the level of “intermediate coordination” appeared, and the level of “mild imbalance” became the largest scale level. From the perspective of food security, the proportion of grain production in the categories of “primary coordination” and “intermediate coordination” was less than 10%, and these provinces never achieved self-sufficiency in food production. The proportion of grain production at the “mild imbalance” level reached 62.4%, while the per capita grain production at the “moderate imbalance” level reached 846.7 kg. Provinces with lower levels of coupling coordination have stronger food security capabilities. It can be observed that the weaker the coupling coordination between agricultural eco-efficiency and urbanization, the higher the food self-sufficiency. Based on the research results above, we discussed strategies to enhance agricultural eco-efficiency in majority grain-producing regions by focusing on technological progress and technical efficiency. Additionally, we analyzed approaches to achieve grain self-sufficiency in regions characterized by a high level of coordination between agricultural eco-efficiency and urbanization, considering both production and trade dimensions.

The interaction between financial assistance and enterprise development is examined in this paper by constructing a coupled coordination degree model. The weights of the secondary indicators in the financial assistance and enterprise development system are calculated using the entropy weighting method. By calculating the coupling degree between financial assistance and enterprise development, we can judge the strength of the coupling effect between them and the time interval. The financial system and enterprise development evaluation indexes were constructed to explore the factors affecting financial assistance for enterprise development. Under certain conditions, financial support and enterprise development can positively affect each other, as shown in the results. The development support weights in the financial support system are 0.1979 and 0.2231, and the total weight is 0.421. The enterprise development system has a technical weight of 0.5806 for technological innovation.

In this paper, the transfer matrix model was first applied, and the eigenvalues of the matrix were calculated to clarify the cultural nature of tourist attractions. The concatenated form is introduced into the transfer matrix, successfully calculating the matrix’s matching function. The coupled coordinated time-series evolution was then used to derive the comprehensive evaluation index of tourist attractions and cultural and educational properties, and the weights of the indexes’ correlation and difference were analyzed to derive the index entropy value. Finally, the original data are processed by the dimensionless standard, the degree of coupling coordination is evaluated with the help of the coupling concept, and the relative level of coupling is dealt with after the matrix transfer. The analysis found that the highest coupling degree of cultural and educational attributes of tourist attractions in 10 years is 0.7. Therefore, the integration and development of cultural and educational attributes of tourist attractions is the inherent requirement and inevitable result of cultural construction and tourism development and must adhere to the principle of coordinated development of promoting tourism with culture and manifesting culture with tourism.