Do the protection and harnessing of river systems promote the society, economy, and ecological environment of cities? A case study of Xi'an, China.

• Interactions between subsystems are analyzed from the perspective of river systems. • The coupling coordination degree and vector autoregression methods are used. • River systems protection and harnessing promote economy, society, and environments. • Environment and river systems protection and harnessing are mutually reinforcing. River systems protection and harnessing (RPH) is crucial for urban water supply, flood control, ecology, and recreation and interacts with cities' society, economy and ecological environment. It is significant to assess the dynamic interaction mechanisms between these factors to support the sustainable development of cities. This study estimated the RPH, social, economic, and environmental subsystems in Xi'an, China, and introduced a vector autoregressive model to quantify the dynamic interactions. The results revealed that (1) the development levels of the four subsystems had an overall upward trend, realizing the development from moderately unbalanced to highly coordinated. (2) A significant dynamic effect was observed between the subsystems: Shocks in one subsystem caused responses in the other. The RPH subsystem played a pivotal role in urban development, which promoted social and economic development and formed a positive mutual promotion with the environment. The social and economic subsystems promoted each other but initially had a negative impact on RPH and the environment, although the long-term impact was positive. (3) All the subsystems showed positive progress, promoting their own progress as the top priority important. These results provide bases for the protection and harnessing of rivers and can be used to plan sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]