Spatiotemporal evolution and driving mechanisms of high-standard farmland construction achievements in the Yellow River Basin

Regional resource allocation is often required to implement the strategy of “storing grain in the land” for national food security. This study aims to explore spatiotemporal evolution and driving mechanisms of high-standard farmland construction in the Yellow River Basin. Panel data were then collected from 60 prefecture-level cities from 2010 to 2023. An evaluation index system was constructed from five dimensions: infrastructure support, resource utilization, disaster prevention and mitigation capacity, economic benefits, and social benefits. Entropy-weighted TOPSIS was employed to determine the yearly construction indexes for each city. Dagum Gini coefficient was used to identify the primary sources of intra- and inter-regional disparities and their evolution trends. Moran’s I index was utilized to test spatial correlation. Geographical Detector Model was applied to assess the explanatory power of each factor—from economic, social, and ecological dimensions—on the spatial differentiation of construction. Additionally, their interactions were analyzed to identify cumulative or nonlinear enhancement among factors. The results indicate that the construction of high-standard farmland shared a trend of improvement in the entire basin. A stepped gradient pattern was characterized by upstream lagging, the middle reaches in the middle, and the downstream leading; the Gini coefficient showed a continuous downward trend over the entire basin, where interregional disparities were the primary source of the variation, although their contribution decreased gradually; There was significant positive spatial autocorrelation in high-standard farmland construction over prefecture-level cities. The patterns with the high levels were concentrated in the lower reaches, while those with low levels were distributed in ecologically fragile areas of the upper reaches. In terms of driving factors, the explanatory power of spatial differentiation was ranked in the descending order of the economic > social > ecological factors in high-standard farmland construction. Among them, the level of fiscal investment was the dominant driving variable in land use differentiation. Although ecological factors had limited explanatory power, there was significant two-factor enhancement when interacting with economic and social factors. Ecological constraints were primarily utilized to moderate the conversion efficiency of economic and social investments. The driving mechanism behind spatiotemporal evolution was synergistically dominated by economic and social factors, with breakthroughs achieved by ecological factors under constraints. Differentiated roles of these various driving forces provided empirical evidence to implement region- and category-specific decision-making on high-standard farmland construction. Therefore, a gradient collaboration mechanism was established to narrow spatial disparities among the upper, middle, and lower reaches; Digital technology is expected for accurate, area-specific control; Ecological-economic synergy is also suitable for the various ecological constraints over the basin; The findings can provide a strong reference for long-term maintenance to realize high-standard farmland construction.