Risk Matrix and Connection Number Coupling Approach for Water Resources and Socio‐Economy Coordinated Development Evaluation

ABSTRACT The coordinated development of water resources and socio‐economy is a crucial component in achieving global sustainable development goals. Currently, there is a lack of an effective evaluation method for assessing their coordinated development. Therefore, this study proposes a novel quantitative model for evaluating coordinated development, which is based on the connection number and risk matrix. This method is applied to 11 provinces within the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB) of China, and its spatiotemporal characteristics and constraining factors of the coordinated development between water resources and socio‐economy are identified. The results indicate that the evaluation results obtained through this method exhibit higher discriminatory power. From 2011 to 2020, the coordinated development level between water resources and socio‐economy of YEB has increased by 1–2 grades. The coordinated development state of the central and eastern regions is better than that of the western regions. Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan are the four provinces with the lowest coordinated development state. Additionally, some practical suggestions are presented for the coordinated development of water resources and the socio‐economy in YEB. The findings of this study help to elucidate the physical mechanisms of coordinated development between water resources and the socio‐economy and provide policy insights for the sustainable development of YEB.