Aiming at the traditional ecological footprint model, the improved ecological footprint of the carbon footprint effectively makes up for the singularity of the ecological footprint's consideration of carbon emissions, and plays an important role in promoting high-quality development and ecological sustainability. This paper selects 2015, 2018 and 2020 as important time points for the study, corrects the ecological footprint parameter factors based on net primary productivity (NPP), measures the ecological footprint after the improvement of the carbon footprint, studies the spatial and temporal variation in the ecological footprint at the 100-m grid scale with the support of IPCC greenhouse gas inventory analysis, and analyzes the current ecological conservation status of the Yellow River Delta. Additionally, in the context of a low carbon economy, the decoupling index of carbon emissions and GDP is extended to the evaluation and analysis of high-quality development. The study showed that (1) the ecological footprint of the Yellow River Delta has increased year by year, from 0.721 hm²·person^− 1 to 0.758 hm²·person^− 1, an average annual increase of 2.9%; the ecological carrying capacity has decreased from 0.40 hm²·person^− 1 to 0.31 hm²·person^− 1, an overall decrease of 28.59%. (2) The overall ecological deficit of the Yellow River Delta grid is lightly overloaded, with most of the ecological surplus occurring in the northern and eastern parts of the study area and a few moderate and heavy overloads in the center of the core area where there is a lot of built-up land and the area is small and easy to gather. (3) Based on the low-carbon economy analysis, 2015, 2017 and 2020 reach absolute decoupling and are in the ideal scenario. However, in the rest of the years, carbon emissions and economic development are still in a large contradiction, and decoupling has fluctuated and varied greatly in the last six years. The effective combination of ecological footprint and low carbon economy analysis provides an important theoretical basis for improving ecological conservation and achieving high-quality development.

Due to the rapid development of urbanization, land-use types have changed greatly, which has led to many ecological problems. Therefore, the current research objective is to solve the problems in existence in Jinan, so as to determine the existing landscape ecological risks and optimize the landscape structure. Using 2 m high-resolution remote sensing images and related natural economic data, this study evaluated the landscape ecological risk and constructed a full-factor ecological network in Jinan with a landscape ecological risk assessment method (ERI) and a minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR) based on landscape ecology theory. The results showed that: (1) The ERI in Jinan presented a spatial concentration of high value areas in the central and central–eastern regions, while other levels in ERI areas presented a spatial distribution around the ecological regions with high risk. (2) The important corridors were mainly distributed in the south of Jinan, which were stable and not easily destroyed. The corridors in other areas were secondary, mainly passing through cultivated land and urban greenways, which were unstable and susceptible to interference.

High-intensity human activities have caused dramatic transformations of land function in China’s coastal zone, putting enormous pressure on the region’s ecological environment. It is urgent to fully understand the spatiotemporal evolution of the land-use function in the coastal zone to promote sustainable development. Therefore, based on CNLUCC data for 2000, 2010, and 2020, this study quantitatively explored the spatiotemporal evolution of production–living–ecological land (PLEL) and its eco-environmental response in China’s coastal zone by using multiple land-use analysis methods, gradient analysis, and the eco-environmental quality index. The results showed that over the past 20 years, the production land (PL) continued to decrease, whereas the living land (LL) and blue ecological land (BEL) increased. In the vertical direction, PL and the ecological land (EL) dominated in the northern and the southern coastal zone, respectively. In the horizontal direction, with increasing distance from the coastline, the green ecological land (GEL) increased, whereas it was the opposite for BEL. The transformations of PLEL were high and low frequency in the north and south, respectively. From 2000 to 2020, the eco-environmental quality of China’s coastal zone slightly degraded, with conditions that were “excellent in the south and poor in the north”. The eco-environmental qualities of each sub-coastal zone gradually improved with increasing distance from the coastline. The main transformation types that led to eco-environmental improvement and degradation were from other production lands (OPL) to blue ecological land (BEL) and BEL to OPL, respectively. The findings will guide PLEL planning, eco-environmental protection, and science-based land usage.