The global carbon neutrality target and policy context of China’s high-quality development cause pressure to and are the driving forces of the transformation and development of resource-based cities. The current paper constructs an indicator system based on the ecological niche theory to measure and spatiotemporally analyze the ecological niche for the high-quality development in 115 resource-based cities in China. The results show that, firstly, the high-quality-development niches in resource-based cities are clustered on a medium level. Secondly, the differences in the sub-dimensional niche breadths are greater overall, with minor differences in the niche of resource and energy and considerable differences in the niche of innovation potential. Thirdly, we characterize the overall development imbalance following a more pronounced temporal evolution from the low to high niche over the decade. Based on the results, recommendations are made for resource-based cities to pinpoint and classify their strategies. The exploration of the comparative status, evolutionary dynamics and development paths for high-quality development in Chinese resource-based cities in this paper provides a systematic reference for building a new pattern of synergistic and sustainable development under the new normal of China’s economy.

Understanding the interactions between the Water–Energy–Food (WEF) coupling coordination and policy instruments is a pivotal pathway toward achieving ecological conservation and sustainable development in basins. Nonetheless, the association between policy instruments and WEF coupling remains inadequately documented. This study develops an integrated evaluation framework for WEF coupling coordination and policy instruments, and employs a two-way fixed-effects model to examine the effects of policy instruments on WEF coupling coordination across nine YRB provinces during 2010–2022. The results show that all three categories of policy instruments significantly improve the WEF coupling coordination degree. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that, in non-arid regions, command-and-control and guidance-based instruments have significant positive effects, whereas the effect of economic incentive instruments is not statistically significant. Technological innovation partially mediates the effects of command-and-control and economic incentive instruments, but not that of guidance-based instruments, whereas capital intensity partially mediates the effects of all three policy instruments on the WEF coupling coordination degree. Government fiscal pressure weakens the positive effects of command-and-control and economic incentive instruments, while its moderating effect on guidance-based instruments is not statistically significant. This study offers valuable insights for supporting the coupling coordination development of WEF in other river basins worldwide.