The high-quality development in the Yunnan–Guizhou region (YGR) is a significant support for the high-quality development of China. It will help shape a new pattern of regional coordinated development. Referring to a Beautiful China and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) evaluation indexes, we built an evaluation index system that puts the high-quality development at its heart. This system includes the resource load, economic development, ecological environment protection, and social progress. Taking 25 prefecture-level cities of the YGR as study subjects, the authors used the entropy weight–TOPSIS model to evaluate high-quality development and evolution. Then, the authors used the Geographical Detector (GD) method and a Geographic-Weighted Regression (GWR) model to analyze factors and mechanisms of the evolution of high-quality development. The results suggest that the changes of urban built-up area, per capita GDP, total foreign trade value, tourism revenue, and total investment of fixed assets investment are the primary factors of spatial differentiation of this evolution. The influence and direction of each factor are different in different periods, with apparent spatio-temporal heterogeneity. From 2005 to 2018, the synergistic effect of changes in total foreign trade value and tourism revenue is the leading force in shaping the evolution pattern. The high-quality development of the YGR generally presents the spatial pattern of “central Yunnan–central Guizhou core dual drive”, “high in east and low in west”, and the evolution speed presents a development characteristic of “low speed–relatively high speed–high speed”. The research can provide a reference for high-quality and precise development and decision-making in the YGR.

Urban agglomerations have become a new trend in the development of urbanization and regionalization in the world today. The construction of urban agglomerations has brought rapid economic development as well as a series of ecological and environmental problems, especially the impact on urban air quality. How to understand and evaluate the impact of urban agglomeration construction on air quality is a key issue that requires attention. City cluster construction is equivalent to a "quasi-natural experiment". This study empirically examines the impact of urban agglomeration construction on air quality in southwest China by constructing a PSM–DID model. It is found that: (1) City cluster construction has significantly improved urban air quality in urban clusters with lagging and forward-looking effects on air quality. (2) In terms of influencing factors, the level of economic development considerably improves the air quality of urban cluster cities, the industrial structure severely deteriorates the air quality of these cities, and meteorological factors highly affect their air quality. Among them, average annual urban rainfall significantly reduces urban air pollutant concentrations in urban clusters, average annual temperature significantly increases urban air pollutant concentrations, and average annual wind speed can reduce urban air pollutant concentrations. (3) Urban agglomerations are spatially heterogeneous in their impact on air quality. In this context, the topographical conditions and the level of development of urban agglomerations have a non-negligible influence on pollutant concentrations. (4) The distribution pattern of air quality pollutant concentrations in each urban agglomeration is unstable, and there are large differences in these concentrations between different urban agglomerations.

The water quality of a basin is pronouncedly affected by the surrounding types of land use. Analyzing the impact of LULC and landscape patterns on water quality is critical for identifying potential drivers. To further study how LUCC affects the water quality in a typical plateau lake basin, this study investigated the impacts of land-use types on water quality in the Dianchi Lake Basin in Southwest China. We analyzed changes in land-use types and the landscape pattern of the Dianchi basin, calculated the CWQI (Canadian Water Quality Index) value based on the water quality indexes (PH, total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), permanganate index (COD_Mn), five-day biochemical ox-ygen demand (BOD₅), ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), turbitidy, and chlorophyll-a (Chla)), used the RDA (Redundancy Analysis) and SMLR (Stepwise multiple linear regression) methods, the coupling degree, coupling coordination degree, and the geographical detector model to explore the relationship between water quality and changes in the land-use type. The results show that (1) changes in the land-use types were obvious: the majority of the land, which was originally forest land, became built land in 2020 and farmland in 1990 (except for the Dianchi water). Landscape pattern indexes indicated that almost all land-use types were first scattered, then gathered from 1990 to 2020. (2) Changes in the water quality of Dianchi Lake lagged behind the changes in land-use types, and the variation trends were similar to the landscape pattern variation trends. The CWQI value decreased in a nearly linear fashion from 1990 to 1998, exhibited a slight change from 1999 to 2013, and quickly increased from 2013. (3) Land-use types demonstrated a tight correlation with the Dianchi water quality, and LPI was the most dominant factor in both Caohai Lake and Waihai Lake. (4) There were different indexes affecting the coupling coordination degrees of Caohai Lake and Waihai Lake.

In a national park master plan, functional zoning plays a key role in developing differentiated zoning controls that achieve multiple park construction objectives. In this study, a geographical attribute code and basic zoning elements are developed for the proposed “Ailaoshan-Wuliangshan” National Park, followed by the development of spatial multi-criteria sets and weight sets to determine the suitability of the land. Next, we use a clustering algorithm and conflict unit prioritization to allocate space for multi-target units to get the preliminary zoning schemes, and then identify stable units and unstable units through sensitivity analysis. Ultimately, the functional zoning of the National Park was determined. According to the results, the proposed “Ailaoshan-Wuliangshan” National Park can be divided into nine types of 164 landscape units; the highest land suitability values of each zone showed the traits of differentiation and aggregation in spatial distribution; there are 97 stable units and 67 unstable units; approximately 62.83% and 37.17% of the total park area can be divided into core conservation area (primary sensitive area and secondary sensitive area) and general control area (ecological activity area and ecological control area). By implementing a comprehensive assessment and decision-making process, the defined functional zones are precise and simple to recognize on the ground, and they adhere to the area proportions needed by national standards. Furthermore, the functional zoning is clustered, which avoids the fragmentation of the zoning results causing difficulties in management, and serves as a point of reference for the functional zoning approaches used in other proposed national parks in China.

The relationship and obstacles between sustainable development (SD) and ecosystem services (ESs) are crucial factors for SD decision-making and ecological conservation strategies. The production-living-ecological (PLE) functional perspective provides a new research entry point to analyze the interrelationship between the SD of human society and ESs. In view of this, based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study established an SD localization evaluation framework from the perspective of the PLE functions and subsequently evaluated the SD levels of 16 cities in Yunnan Province from 2005 to 2020. Furthermore, changes in the ecosystem service value (ESV) were explored by combining the PLE land classification and dynamic equivalence methods. The relationship between SD and ESV was then analyzed using the modified coupling coordination degree (CCD) model. Finally, the obstacle degree model was introduced to identify the main factors affecting the CCD level of the two systems. The results revealed the SD level in Yunnan Province to be high in the central region and low in other areas. From 2005 to 2020, the province’s SD level increased from 0.146 to 0.341. Furthermore, the main contribution of ESV originated from ecological land (over 90%). The ESV was higher in the southwest of Yunnan Province compared to that in the northeast. From 2005 to 2020, the ESV decreased by 2.231 billion CNY and was dominated by the regulation services. The CCD level increased significantly from 2005 to 2020. The CCD subcategory changed from SD lag to ESV lag and ESV-SD balanced type. Moreover, the dominant obstacle factors did not change significantly during the study period. The ESV and SD systems were dominated by regulation services and sustainable production subsystems, respectively. The research results have important guiding significance for further optimization of regional development strategies and ecological protection measures.