Coupling analysis of rural revitalization and talent development in disadvantaged counties in China

This study examines 44 relatively impoverished counties in Hebei Province, China, to develop evaluation systems for rural revitalization potential across five dimensions, namely, industry, ecology, culture, governance, livelihoods, and talent development. Among them, talent development is assessed across three dimensions, namely, quality, structure, and quantity. We employ an integrated weighting method combining the coefficient of variation and criteria importance through intercriteria correlation. A coupling coordination model is applied to analyze the synergies between these subsystems, revealing that 84% of counties are trapped in low-level coordination (coupling coordination degree < 0.4), with only seven approaching the coordination threshold. Furthermore, 75% of the counties exhibit a lag in rural revitalization potential, with coordination levels significantly higher in the plains than in mountainous regions. Geographical distance threshold analysis reveals a 0.038 decline in coordination for long-distance groups (>100 km) compared with short-distance groups (<50 km), confirming the distance decay effect on spatial governance. Thus, we propose optimizing geospatial heterogeneity response mechanisms to overcome the low-level equilibrium trap.