Urban Coupling Coordination in the 3E-D-T Nexus: A Case Study of Jiangsu, China

Amid China’s “dual carbon” goals and technological transformation, the traditional energy–economy–environment (3E) framework fails to capture evolving urban sustainability patterns, as digitalization and innovation emerge as endogenous drivers. This study constructs an expanded five-system framework (3E-D-T: energy, economy, environment, digitalization, technology) and examines its coupling coordination. Using panel data from 13 Jiangsu cities (2015–2024), we employ entropy weighting, coupling coordination models, Dagum Gini decomposition, spatial autocorrelation, and panel Tobit regression. Results show that incorporating digitalization and technology alters coordination assessments, revealing structural disparities overlooked by the traditional framework. Significant intra-provincial heterogeneity exists across Jiangsu’s regions, with distinct spatial gradients. External factors—economic development, industrial structure, fiscal support, and environmental regulation—exert differentiated regional impacts. Contributions include: (1) expanding 3E to 3E-D-T by endogenizing digitalization and technology; (2) establishing an integrated measurement-evolution-mechanism analytical system; (3) providing empirical evidence on internal heterogeneity and differentiated governance pathways in eastern China.