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The watershed system has a complex game relationship between the benign operation and coordinated development of various elements of flood-sediment transportation, eco-environment, and socio-economy (FES). With the increasing breadth, depth, and intensity of human activities in watersheds, it is urgent to coordinate the FES. The relationship of water–sediment in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) is complex, with a prominent contradiction in water supply and a fragile ecosystem. This research tries to build a comprehensive evaluation model for FES and explore the complex interaction between FES in the YRB from 2000 to 2020. The results demonstrated that (1) the comprehensive flood-sediment transportation index (CFTI) and comprehensive eco-environment index (CEI) presented fluctuating growth. In contrast, the comprehensive socio-economy index (CSI) revealed a linear growth trend. The CFTI of Sanmenxia, CEI of Toudaokuan, and CSI of Ningxia had the highest growth rates, with 36.03%, 6.48%, and 107.5%, respectively. (2) FES's positive and negative effects were alternating, with heterogeneity in both time and space. (3) The coupling coordination degree (CCD) in the YRB indicated an increasing trend, ranging from 0.53 to 0.87, from reluctantly coordinated development to good coordinated development. The lagging subsystem was CFTI (2000–2001 and 2008–2020) and CSI (2002–2007), and the CEI was not lagging. (4) Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) demonstrated significant differences in the CCD of the YRB, and areas with similar CCD within the basin tend to be centrally distributed in space. At the same time, there was negative spatial autocorrelation in coordination. The results provide a scientific theoretical and methodological framework for strategic research on the YRB system's governance, protection, and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the level of coupling coordination between the digital economy and low-carbon development is not only an inevitable choice for implementing the strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, but also a key path to achieve China's "Double Carbon" goal. The level of coupling coordination between the digital economy and low-carbon development in 78 cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2011 to 2020 is measured by a coupling coordination model, and the spatial-temporal characteristics and driving factors are analysed using the Dagum Gini coefficient, spatial autocorrelation model and geographic detector. This study found the following: (1) Rapid growth of the digital economy, with the slow growth of low-carbon development. The degree of coupling coordination of the two systems steadily improved and moved from a stage of near-disorder to primary coordination. (2) The degree of coupling coordination is spatially characterised by lower reaches > middle reaches > upper reaches, and provincial capitals and some coastal cities have a higher level of coupling coordination. Spatial differences in coupling coordination tend to widen, with inter-regional differences being the main source of overall differences. (3) There was a significant positive spatial correlation in the degree of coupling coordination. Local spatial clustering characteristics were dominated by High-High (H-H) clustering areas in Shandong and Low-Low (L-L) clustering areas in south-eastern Gansu. (4) The degree of coupling coordination was driven by both internal and external factors of the two systems, with internet penetration and the size of the telecommunications industry within the digital economy system as the most important factors driving the coupling coordination, and the interactions between the different drivers were all enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important manifestation of high-quality regional development is the coordination of economic development and the ecological environment. We used night light data and the net primary productivity (NPP) of vegetation to quantitatively analyze the economic development and ecological environment of nine provinces (regions) in the Yellow River Basin in 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020, and explored the coupling coordination relationship between the two from temporal and spatial scales. The analysis results showed that: (1) The ecological value of the Yellow River Basin showed a declining–rising trend. In 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020, the ecological value of the Yellow River Basin was 2290.67 billion yuan, 2140.11 billion yuan, 2304.49 billion yuan and 2387.55 billion yuan. (2) The light density was related to the economic development of the city, and the light density showed a steady increase. The light index increased from 0.0001–1.6534 in 2005 to 0.0029–5.055 in 2020. The hot spots of light density were concentrated in the capital cities of the provinces with relatively good economic development and were concentrated in the east; the cold spots were mainly concentrated in the relatively slow economic development areas in the west. (3) The degree of coordination between economy and ecology in the Yellow River Basin increased from 0.1757 in 2005 to 0.2529 in 2020. However, the coordination degree of the ecological economy in the basin has been in an unbalanced state for a long time, with huge development potential. (4) There was a huge gap in the degree of ecological coordination in the basin. In 2020, the most coordinated ecological economy was 0.519 in Chengdu, and the most unbalanced was 0.053 in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]