Research on the Coordinated Development of Economic Development and Ecological Environment of Nine Provinces (Regions) in the Yellow River Basin

Abstract

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.