Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Coupling Coordination Degree between Haze Disaster and Urbanization Systems in China from 2000 to 2020

Quantitative evaluation of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between regional haze the disaster risk index (HRI) and urbanization development index level (UDI) is of great significance for the realization of regional sustainable development goals. Given the lack of the combination of remote sensing and statistical data to evaluate the CCD between two systems, the Chinese mainland’s 31 provinces and autonomous regions were taken to evaluate their HRI and UDI by building index systems. Then, an entropy method and one improved coupling coordination model were used to calculate and analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of CCD between HRI and UDI during 2000–2020. The results showed that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the value of HRI in China showed a “W” type change trend with its value increased from 0.7041 in 2000 to 0.8859 in 2020, indicating that haze pollution level showed a fluctuating downward trend; (2) From 2000 to 2020, China’s UDI values showed a gradual upward trend with its value increased from 0.1647 in 2000 to 0.4640 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 8.63%; (3) From 2000 to 2020, CCD values between HRI and UDI showed a fluctuating upward trend with its value increased from 0.5374 in 2000 to 0.7781 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 2.13%; the overall level of China’s CCD had raised from low coordination to moderate coordination, and eastern coastal provinces had higher CCD values, while those of central and western provinces had lower CCD values; (4) HRI, UDI and CCD could be well fitted with the R2 of 0.9869. Specifically, UDI had a higher contribution to improving the CCD than the HRI.