Water, Energy and Food are essential resources for human survival and development. Integrated Water-Energy-Food (W-E-F) coupling coordination measurement is the foundation for effective sustainable management. Taking the Yellow River Basin(YRB) as an example, this study analyzed spatio-temporal characteristics and driving mechanism of W-E-F coupling coordination. Improved coupling coordination degree model, exploratory spatial analysis and multi-scale geo-weighted regression were adopted in this research. The results showed that: i) The evaluation indices of the water, energy and food subsystem showed varying degrees of variability from 2003-2018, with significant spatial imbalances in each subsystem. ii) The mean value of the CCD for the W-E-F in the YRB from 2003 to 2018 varied less and remained at moderate coordination overall. High and moderate coordination areas have increased, while basic and low areas have decreased and concentrated towards the midstream and upstream. In addition, the spatial clustering phenomenon was significant. And, the hot spots in the basin showed obvious characteristics of two-stage differentiation. iii) The CCD was driven by a combination of natural and socio-economic factors, with large differences in the scales of action for different variables. GPC, AYP, PD and intercept showed significant positive correlations with the CCD, while the PSE and UR presented significant negative correlations. Of particular importance was the GPC, which contributed most to the coupled and coordinated regional development. These findings could provide a reference and basis for promoting high-quality economic development of the basin and enhance the sustainability of the W-E-F system.
 

Water-Energy-Food(W-E-F), Spatio-temporal differentiation, Coupling coordination degree, Driving mechanism, Yellow River Basin