Understanding the coupling coordination mechanism between urbanization and territorial spatial ecological restoration in “revolutionary-minority-border-montanic-poverty” regions

To better understand the coupling coordination mechanism between urbanization and territorial spatial ecological restoration, a typical study was conducted in three provinces with "revolutionary-minority-border-montanic-poverty" characteristics. This study constructed a coupling coordination system by which the relationship between urbanization and territorial spatial ecological restoration could be determined after which the coupling coordination and grey correlation models, were used to explore the spatiotemporal differentiation characteristics and driving factors of urbanization and ecological restoration. The results showed the level of territorial spatial ecological restoration throughout the "revolutionary-minority-border-montanic-poverty" region was higher than the level of urbanization before 2015 and was lower than that after 2015. The gap between these two categories was widening. The overall difference in the degree of urbanization and territorial spatial ecological restoration systems showed an increasing trend, and the degree of internal difference of the latter was higher than that of the former. The coupling coordination relationship between urbanization and territorial spatial ecological restoration systems had changed from slightly irregular to primary coordination, and the overall coupling coordination level of the regions was higher than that of the each provinces. Although the coupling coordination level had improved, it was still relatively low and did not result in the formation of a favorable mutual relationship. There was strong correlation among the indexes of the two systems; therefore, ensuring good territorial spatial ecological governance was a strong driving force for promoting the development of urbanization. The development of the "revolutionary-minority-border-montanic-poverty" region should be planned in a holistic manner. According to the theory of marginal analysis, the degree of improvement in urbanization should be regarded as a marginal benefit, the degree of improvement in territorial spatial ecological restoration should be regarded as a marginal cost, and the degree of coupling coordination should be taken as constraint with which to form a benign mechanism driven by the former two factors in order to ensure sustainable development