As a regional development strategy based on the world’s third largest river basin unit, the Yangtze river economic belt strategy plays a vital role in building ecological civilization with the core concept of “ecological priority and green development”. To study the impact of the Yangtze River Economic Belt strategy on the construction of ecological civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. This paper uses the entropy power method to measure the level of ecological civilization construction in 37 prefecture-level cities in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It examines the impact of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Strategy on the construction of ecological civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River based on the DID method. The study results show that 1) the level of ecological civilization construction in the Yangtze River’s upper reaches has continuously improved from 2003 to 2020. 2) The implementation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Strategy has a significant positive impact on the construction of ecological civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. 3) The Yangtze River Economic Belt Strategy can promote the construction of ecological civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River by improving the level of science and technology innovation. 4) The implementation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Strategy does not significantly impact the level of ecological civilization construction in the regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, so it is necessary to pay attention to the synergy between different policies. This study will help to raise the awareness of developing countries on economic development and ecological protection in the river basin, and provide a reference for policymakers.

Water supply services (WSSs) are critical to human survival and development. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model enables an integrated, dynamic, and visual assessment of ecosystem services at different scales. In addition, Geodetector is an effective tool for identifying the main driving factors of spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem services. Therefore, this article takes the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA), the most prominent strategic reserve of freshwater resources in China, as the study area and uses the InVEST model to simulate the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the supply-demand balance of WSSs and freshwater security patterns in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2018, and explores the key driving factors of freshwater security index (FSI) with Geodetector. The total supply of WSSs in the TGRA decreased by 1.05% overall between 2005 and 2018, with the head and tail areas being low-value regions for water yield and the central part of the belly areas being high-value regions for water yield. The total demand for WSSs in the TGRA increased by 9.1%, with the tail zones and the central part of the belly zones being the high water consumption areas. In contrast, the head zones are of low water consumption. The multi-year average FSI of the TGRA is 0.12, 0.1, 0.21, and 0.16, showing an upward trend. The key ecological function areas in the TGRA are high-value FSI regions, while the tail zones in the key development areas are low-value FSI regions. Industrial water consumption significantly impacts FSI, with a multi-year average q value of 0.82. Meanwhile, the q value of industrial and domestic water consumption on FSI in 2018 increased by 43.54% and 30%, respectively, compared with 2005. This study analyzes the spatiotemporal variation of WSSs and detects the drivers in the natural-economic-social perspective and innovation in ecosystem services research. The study results can guide water resource security management in other large reservoirs or specific reservoir areas.

Intelligentization-oriented development is a fast-developing trend of technological revolution. It promotes the reconstruction of the industrial system of a region and affects its overall industrial competitiveness. This paper sets up a variety of models featuring intelligentization level and multi-dimensional industrial competitiveness, and collects data of 28 provinces and cities in China from 2003 to 2017 to test the influence of industrial intelligentization level on the industrial competitiveness of a region. The result reveals that: 1) In China’s provincial jurisdictions, the higher the level of intelligentization is, the lower the overall level of industrial competitiveness and the lower the proportion of industry in the economic system will be. In regions where the facilities are highly intelligentialized, the production sectors tend to move to the less developed regions, and the growth effect of technological dividends is the focus. 2) Compared with the middle region and the Western region of China, the Eastern region, which is more developed with higher intelligentization level, has stronger ability in the research and development (R&D) of technologies, and the economic structure of the industry there tends to be stable, manifesting a strong growth potential.