Factors affecting ecological protection and socioeconomic development and their coupling coordination across riverfront resources along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province, China

Riverfronts are important sites of infrastructure, including ports, roads, bridges, industrial construction, tourism, and leisure, and are strategic resources. This study first clarified the mechanisms of coupling coordination of the complex eco-economic systems of the riverfront and then constructed an index for the evaluation of the coupling coordination for the simultaneous ecological protection and socioeconomic development of riverfront resources. The entropy method and a model of coupling coordination were used to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics and factors in the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River from 2008 to 2023. The results show that, (1) the ecological protection and socioeconomic development indices of the riverfront resources of cities in Jiangsu Province generally increased, and the coupling coordination degree between the two increased from 0.44 in 2008 to 0.83 in 2023. (2) The coordinated development of the study area can be divided into three stages: a period of decline in dissonance, a transitional development period and a period of coordinated development; three spatial categories were identified: a high-level coupling region, an intermediate coupling region, and a primary coupling region. (3) Structural equation model analysis demonstrated that land-use pressures, ecological responses, and economic benefits have a particularly significant impact on the coupling coordination of ecological protection and socioeconomic development of riverfront resources. This study deepens the understanding of the relationship between ecological protection and socioeconomic development of riverfront resources, and provides theoretical support for governments and relevant departments to formulate riverfront resource management policies, guide industrial layout and development, and promote regional coordinated development.