Investigating the evolutionary relationship of coupling coordination between the social economy and lake water environment integrating multi-source data: a case study of Hefei, China

Revealing the coordinated correlation between the social economy and lake water environment is essential for building urban sustainable economies and ecological civilization. This research utilizes multiple sources of data to construct the coupling coordination degree (CCD) and the system generalized method of moments models. These two models are then used to analyze the research sample of Hefei City in China during the period of 2009‒2020. The findings highlight that economic development and water environmental protection have an critical effect on determining coordination relationship in coupling system. We find that the CCD shows a fluctuating upward trend between 0.379 and 0.717 during 2009–2020. Further analyses indicate that the two subsystems evolve from the undesirable stages to the favorably balanced development, forming a virtuous cycle. In general, the improvement of the CCD could be attributed to the increase in the speed and scale of socioeconomic growth and water environmental treatment. In addition, per-capita gross domestic product and population density, which are key socioeconomic development factors, have a significant effect on cyanobacterial blooms. This proves that cyanobacterial blooms intensify with socioeconomic development and then gradually improve as the upgradation of industrial structure and treatment technical. These findings aim to assist decision-makers in comprehending the intricate coupling relationship better when formulating urban industrial planning strategies at different developmental stages along with effective water pollution control measures.