Spatiotemporal evolution, regional disparities, and driving mechanisms for the synergistic effects of production-living-ecological functions in urban-rural land spaces in Zhejiang Province of China

Production-living-ecological (PLE) functions are of great significance within urban and rural territorial spaces. It is often required to synergistically promote the urban-rural spaces. Taking Zhejiang Province as a case study, this research aims to construct a multifunctional evaluation indicator system for the urban and rural territorial spaces. The coupling coordination degree model, composite system synergy degree model, Dagum Gini coefficient, and geographical detector were employed to explore the synergistic and spatiotemporal evolution of the PLE functions from 2000 to 2020. A systematic investigation was also implemented to determine their driving mechanisms. The results indicated that: 1) An upward trend was found in the PLE functions and governing function of the urban and rural territorial spaces. The improvement rate of the PLE function levels in the urban areas was higher than that in the rural areas. While there was more balance on the PLE function levels in the rural territorial spaces. There were similar distribution patterns of the PLE functions and the comprehensive function in the urban and rural areas. The high-value areas of the production, living, and comprehensive functions were concentrated in the northern region. 2) There was an improvement in the coupling coordination level of various functions in the urban and rural territorial spaces. High-level coupling coordination areas for the urban and rural production, living, and comprehensive functions were concentrated in the core area of northern. While the coupling coordination of the ecological functions exhibited a pattern of "low in the north and high in the south." The synergistic evolution of the urban-rural production, living, and comprehensive functions was primarily characterized by the moderate and synergy types, where the high-level synergy areas were mostly concentrated in the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Ningbo and Hangjiahu Plain regions. The synergistic evolution of the urban-rural ecological functions was dominated by mild synergy, indicating a spatial distribution pattern of "low in the north and high in the south." The largest regional disparity was found in the synergistic evolution of urban-rural production functions. While the smallest was the ecological functions. Furthermore, there were consistent types in the coupling coordination and synergistic evolution of the PLE functions in different regions. Specifically, the urban-rural production and living functions in northern and coastal areas were characterized by the high coordination-good synergy types. While the mild coordination-mild synergy types predominated in the southern and western regions. Urban-rural ecological functions exhibited high-level coordination, but insignificant synergistic evolution. 3) The multiple factors were dominant in the synergistic evolution pattern of the PLE functions in the urban and rural territorial spaces. Per capita GDP, fiscal expenditure, and agricultural security were the dominant factors for the synergistic evolution of the urban-rural comprehensive function. The synergistic evolution of the urban-rural production and living functions depended on the coupled path of "natural base-economic linkage-policy regulation." There were the most complex response factors for the urban-rural living functions. The synergistic evolution of the urban-rural ecological functions was dominated by the altitude and the policy factor in the optimal development zones. Additionally, the interaction between per capita GDP and agricultural security shared the strongest interaction on the synergistic evolution of the urban-rural production and comprehensive functions. The nonlinear enhancement was found in the interaction between the urban-rural disposable income ratio and infrastructure.