Spatio-temporal differentiation and obstacle diagnosis of coupling coordination of pseudo human settlements in China’s urban agglomerations

With the rapid development of the Internet, pseudo human settlements (PHS) have emerged, and urban agglomerations (UAs) must urgently adapt to digital and intelligent transformation. This research focuses on 19 China's UAs and aims to explore the spatio-temporal patterns and obstacles to the coordinated development of PHS. The study creatively constructs a theoretical framework for PHS and employs methods including the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, standard deviation ellipse, and obstacle degree model. Findings show: (1) CCD exhibits the overall characteristics of "high coupling-low dispersion, low coordination-high dispersion". There are six types of coupling coordination, with disordered types dominating. The evolution of types shows three stages: "disorder prevalent-coordination emerges-coordination expands". (2) Temporally, taking 2015 as the reference point, the overall trend shows rapid growth followed by fluctuations and declines, gradually stabilizing. Spatially, it shows "east-high, west-low" and "core-periphery" patterns, with spatial agglomeration and a southward center of gravity shift. (3) Tool and living systems are key dimensional obstacles, while Start Reading, 2345 Weather, Quark, Kuaishou, and Tencent Cloud are major indicator obstacles. This study enriches the theoretical content of human settlements research in the digital age, provides new perspectives for human settlements geography, and expands the research dimension of the "human-land-technology" interaction in urbanization theory. Meanwhile, it contributes to promoting high-quality urban development and the creation of innovative, livable, civilized, and smart modern cities for the people.