ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Conservation and Restoration Ecology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2025.1666034
Coordinated Development of Ecosystem Services and Human Well-being is Increasing in the Yellow River Basin, though Some Regions Lag Behind
Provisionally accepted
- 1North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power, Zhengzhou, China
- 2Henan University, Kaifeng, China
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Exploring and predicting the interaction between ecosystem services (ESs) and human well-being (HWB) is essential for understanding Human-Natural system coupling and sustainable development. Existing studies often use a cascading framework to delineate the transmission of ESs system to HWB system, but rarely reveal the interaction between the two systems. In this study, we treated ESs and HWB as two large systems and investigated the interactive coercing relationship in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) from both the system and subsystem levels. Initially, we estimated ecosystem services value (ESV) for each province in the YRB using the revised equivalent factor method, and evaluated the level of HWB by GRA-TOPSIS model. Subsequently, we analyzed the interactive coercing relationship between ESV and HWB utilizing the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model. Finally, we predicted the development trajectory of the coupled system in the next 20 years. From 2000 to 2020, ESV increased in Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi and Shandong, but decreased in Shanxi, Henan, and Inner Mongolia. HWB overall showed a positive upward trend. At the subsystem level, regulation service was the dominant function, and the health and safety well-being was lower than other well-being, but the mental fulfillment well-being improving most slowly. System-level CCD between ESV and HWB has been rising and will continue to do so. The relationship between support service and HWB in Shandong deteriorated, and the relationship between the ESV and HWB in Gansu exhibited a serious lag in ESV and will remain in an uncoordinated state for the next 20 years. Our approaches and results have guiding significance for promoting the coordinated development of HWB and ESs and substantiating the SDGs.
Keywords: ecosystem service value, human well-being, Interactive coercing mechanism, couplingcoordination, SDGs framework, Yellow River Basin
Received: 15 Jul 2025; Accepted: 14 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Wang, Zhang and Cao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lianhai Cao, caolianhai1969@163.com
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