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  • May. 13, 2025

Arid Land Geography ›› 2025, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (4): 717-727.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2024.280

• Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Coupling coordination and obstacle factors of water-society-ecosystem in the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration

HOU Caixia(), ZHANG Yuzhou, YANG Jianping()   

  1. School of Management, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China
  • Received:2024-05-06 Revised:2024-10-11 Online:2025-04-25 Published:2025-04-18
  • Contact: YANG Jianping E-mail:houcx@xauat.edu.cn;yangjp17@xauat.edu.cn

Abstract:

The Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration is the largest urban cluster in the water-scarce region of northwest China. Exploring the coordination among water resources, the socio-economic system, and the ecosystem is crucial for regional water governance and sustainable development. This study examines 11 prefecture-level cities within the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration. By establishing a comprehensive evaluation index system for the coordinated development of water resources, socio-economic, and ecological systems, the comprehensive evaluation indices of these three systems from 2006 to 2020 are calculated. The coupling coordination model is employed to measure and analyze their coordination, while the obstacle degree function is used to identify the primary constraints affecting the coupling coordination degree. The results indicate that: (1) From 2006 to 2020, the development levels of water resources, socio-economic, and ecological systems across the cities in the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration exhibited an overall upward trend with distinct spatial gradation. Cities with higher water resource system levels include core and surrounding cities, while those with higher socio-economic system levels are predominantly core cities. Prefecture-level cities with higher ecological system levels are either core or peripheral cities. (2) The coupling coordination degree of the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration improved from a state of slight imbalance in 2006 to basic coordination by 2020. Spatially, the coupling coordination followed a hierarchical pattern of “core cities>surrounding cities>peripheral cities”. (3) Significant differences exist in the primary obstacles affecting the coupling coordination degree across the 11 prefecture-level cities. Based on the detection results of obstacle factors, the coordinated development of the water-socio-economic-ecosystems in the study area can be categorized into three types: comprehensive development constrained by water resources (core cities), ecological environment lagging behind (surrounding cities), and socio-economic lagging behind (peripheral cities).

Key words: Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration, water resources system, socio-economic system, ecosystem, coupling coordination degree