LAUSR

Abstract The coupling between urbanization and the eco-environment plays an important role in advancing China’s urbanization. This study applies systems theory to build a set of indicators for urbanization and the eco-environment and uses the entropy method to determine the weights of the indicators. Furthermore, a coupling coordination degree model, spatial autocorrelation method and decoupling model are used to comprehensively analyse the spatial–temporal differentiation in the coupling coordination between urbanization and the eco-environment in China from 2001 to 2016. The results indicate that during the study period, the level of urbanization in eastern China was higher than that in other regions, while the western region reached the highest eco-environment level. Generally, the eco-environment index of each province was greater than the urbanization index. The degree of coupling between urbanization and the eco-environment exhibited a reversed U-shape trend, while the degree of coordination exhibited a slow upward trend. The eastern region demonstrated a significantly higher degree than the middle and western regions. The coupling coordination degree exhibited evident spatial autocorrelation along with a trend of increasing and then decreasing. The cold and hot spots of spatial clustering revealed a spatial evolution and migration trend, albeit to a limited extent. From 2001 to 2016, most regions of China evolved towards a strong decoupling state between urbanization and the eco-environment.