Spatial-temporal characteristics and coupled coordination mechanism of sustainable agriculture and rural development of resource-based areas in the Yellow River Basin: An empirical analysis based on 42 prefecture-level cities

As a resource-based region in the Yellow River Basin, this study area is an important energy resource base and food supply area in China. Exploring its coupling coordination mechanism between sustainable agriculture and rural development is essential to building a solid ecological security barrier in the Yellow River and revitalizing its rural area. On the basis of estimating the level of sustainable agriculture and rural development in the study area during 2008—2020, the coupling coordination degree model and geographic detectors are used to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution patterns of sustainable agriculture and rural development, the influencing factors and their coupling and coordination mechanisms in this area. Here are the results: ① the levels of sustainable agriculture and rural development of the study area fluctuate at a lower level and increase slowly, and the fluctuation range of sustainable agriculture development level is higher than that of sustainable rural development, its level is higher than that of sustainable rural development as well, and there is significant spatial heterogeneity among the level of sustainable agriculture and rural development, even sustainable agriculture development and sustainable rural development; ② although the constraining factors of sustainable agriculture and rural development of the study area are convergent, their spatial heterogeneities are evident; ③ the coupling degree of sustainable agricultural development and sustainable rural develpoment is higher than the coupling coordination degree, while the former decreased weakly, and the latter increased obviously, and they are in the antagonistic and low-dissonance stages respectively; ④ by and large, the higher level areas of sustainable agriculture and sustainable rural development of the study area and the high level areas of their coupling coordination in 2020 exhibit a "butterfly-wings" distribution pattern along the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture-Ordoscity-Nanyang City-Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, while its lower level areas concentrated in some prefecture-level cities in the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Henan section of the "several" bay of the Yellow River and downstream areas; ⑤ the type of factor affects the level of sustainable agriculture and rural development are interactions model, namely, the complexity of interaction among factors that lead to the spatial differentiation of their coupling coordination degree is extremely obvious, whereafter coupled coordination mechanisms for sustainable agricultural development and sustainable rural development in study area were constructed based on a classification of their mechanisms.