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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (9): 1940-1950.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.643

• Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal coupling, evolutionary trajectories, and driving factors of grain production resilience and water resources carrying capacity in the Yellow River Basin

XU Qingdi(), YANG Qing()   

  1. College of Economics and Finance, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, Gansu, China
  • Received:2025-10-13 Revised:2025-11-25 Online:2026-09-25 Published:2026-09-07
  • Contact: YANG Qing E-mail:1073324020018@st.gsau.edu.cn;yangq@gsau.edu.cn

Abstract:

Investigating the intrinsic relationship and driving factors between grain production resilience and water resource carrying capacity in the Yellow River Basin of China has significant implications for the basin’s high-quality development. This study examines nine provinces and autonomous regions in the Yellow River Basin, constructing a grain production resilience and water resource carrying capacity evaluation index system and comprehensively applying entropy value analysis, coupling coordination degree models, and random forest algorithms to systematically analyze these systems’ integrated development, spatiotemporal coupling evolution characteristics, and driving factors from 2014 to 2023. The relevant results are fourfold. (1) In the period under study, grain production resilience in the Yellow River Basin showed a steady upward trend, while water resource carrying capacity exhibited an increase-fluctuation-adjustment pattern. (2) The two systems’ coupling coordination degree improved from barely coordinated (0.534) to preliminarily coordinated (0.610), although at a slow pace. Over time, fluctuating characteristics of overall divergence, individual sectors leading, and lagging sectors undergoing optimization transpired. (3) Spatially, the coupling coordination level exhibited a gradient distribution pattern of higher in the east than in the west and higher in the lower reaches than in the upper reaches. The upper, middle, and lower reaches formed distinct local patterns, respectively encompassing a low-value cluster zone, a high-value C-shaped pattern encircling Shanxi, and another high-value cluster zone. (4) Effective irrigated area is the primary driver, jointly influencing both systems’ coordination alongside the water production modulus, water consumption per 10000 yuan of GDP, number of agricultural researchers, and cropping index.

Key words: food security, water resource carrying capacity, Yellow River Basin, resilience, random forest