Spatiotemporal coupling of ecological vulnerability and economic comprehensive level in the source area of the Yellow River in China based on remote sensing, GIS and AHP-CRITIC

The Yellow River Source Area (YRSA) is ecologically fragile, economically weak, geographically vast and sparsely populated, and faces challenges to its development. Existing studies on the YRSA often neglect the interactions between ecological and socio-economic factors, which is a hot issue in sustainable development research. In this article, the hierarchical analysis method (AHP), CRITIC weighting method, state-function-structure model (SFS), coupled coordination degree model (CCDM), and spatio-temporal geographically weighted regression (GTWR) are used to assess spatio-temporal coupling of ecology and economy and to analyze the influencing factors. The results show that the YRSA is dominated by grassland ecosystem and the ecological vulnerability has been improved to a certain extent. The northeastern region is higher than the southwestern region in terms of economic level, which corresponds to the coupling coordination results. Hot spots are clustered in the north, and cold spots spread from the southeast to the west. The two main factors affecting ecological vulnerability (EV) and economic comprehensive level (ECL) are population density and elevation. This study complements existing knowledge of ecological, economic and human-land systems at the global regional scale. It provides important insights and data to support policy formulation and implementation while contributing to regional ecological and socio-economic improvements.