Coupling coordination analysis of rural production-living-ecological space in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

Rural spaces are multifunctional, often containing production, living and ecological functions. Optimizing the production-living-ecological space has become one of the cores of China’s ecological civilization and sustainable development strategy. Research of the coupling coordination relationships among rural production, living and ecological functions is of immense significance for sustainable rural development during urban–rural transformation development. In this study, an evaluation index system was established to calculate and characterize rural production-living-ecological functions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. Besides, this paper explored the spatio-temporal characteristics of both the coupling and coordinating relationship of the rural three fundamental functions from 2000 to 2015 in the study area, using a coupling coordination degree model (CCDM). Results showed that the spatio-temporal differences of the coupling coordination degree of rural production-living-ecological function were significant in the BTH region. The overall spatial pattern was characterized by “high in the northwest and low in the southeast” distribution and the entirety presented the evolution law of coupled and coordinated development from low level to high level over time. Moreover, rural production-living, living-ecological and production-ecological functions present marked differences in spatio-temporal pattern. In the future, the differentiated rural sustainable development strategy should be formulated and implemented based on the rules of spatio-temporal pattern differentiation of the rural production-living- ecological functions. This research will provide a decision-making reference for promoting the coordinated development among rural production-living-ecological functions and implementing the rural revitalization strategy to achieve the goal of rural sustainability.