The construction of pseudo human settlements in the context of “digital-real integration” in the information age is crucial for the high-quality development of human settlements in the new era. This study aimed to investigate the spatio-temporal evolution of the pseudo human settlements and its mechanism to provide new ideas for scientific breakthroughs in cross-disciplinary fields, such as human settlements, and to provide a strong basis for promoting the overall improvement of the quality of the human settlements in the central China’s urban agglomerations in the new era. Employing the theoretical framework of “three states” in human settlements, this study utilizes big data, including tourism, shopping, work, and socialization, to investigate the dynamic patterns and driving mechanisms of pseudo human settlements within Central China’s urban agglomerations from 2011 to 2021, employing methodologies such as the coupling coordination model, standard deviation ellipse, kernel density, and gray correlation degree. The results show the following: (1) the overall pseudo human settlements in central China’s urban agglomerations exhibit a pattern of “high coupling and low coordination”. (2) The overall coupling degree exhibits a fluctuating upward trend and has been at a high coupling-state level. (3) The degree of coupling coordination has obvious spatial differentiation characteristics, such as the core circle, “tower”, and “two main and one secondary” core structure. (4) The overall level of pseudo human settlements is influenced by the combination of time, space, and the multidimensionality of systems and indicators. This study conducted research on pseudo human settlements to enrich the theory of the human–land interaction relationship in geography and reflect the decision-making needs in the strategy of network power.

Pseudo human settlements in the information age is an important part of human settlements geography, which has a comprehensive and profound impact on urban production, life and ecology in China and even the world, but the existing research on pseudo human settlements is still unclear, and cannot meet the requirements of China’s “digital-realistic fusion”, “network power” and the construction of a beautiful China. Therefore, this paper starts from the perspective of pseudo, based on the theory of the coupling system of human settlements, and applies the entropy weight method, coupling coordination model, geodetector and other methods and spatial technologies to deeply analyze the spatial and temporal evolution of the pseudo human settlements and the driving mechanism of the 14 cities in Liaoning Province from 2011 to 2020. The results show that: 1) Liaoning Province’s pseudo human settlements in the time evolution of the overall quality of the main theme of the rise, with the “Internet festival” node effect and significant stage. 2) The spatial distribution is characterized by the geographical layout of “1″-type high-quality development centers and concentric-circle spatial distribution; and the trend surface shows a low uniformity pattern of “high in the south-central part and low in the surrounding area”. 3) The degree of system coupling and the degree of coupling coordination both show a fluctuating upward trend, with the spatial heterogeneity characteristic of “high in the central part and low in the surrounding area”. 4) Tool system has become the emerging driving force, communication and social chat has become the basic driving force, and life service is the invisible driving force; communication class and community class are the important leading driving factors. The study aims to enrich the research system of human settlements, promote the development of the discipline of human settlements geography, provide a new basis for the construction of human settlements in the new era, and respond to the demand for decision-making in the strategy of network power.

In the information age, the new wave of the information technology revolution has profoundly changed our mode of production and way of life. Pseudo human settlements (PHS), consisting of digits and information, have become increasingly important in human settlements (HS) systems, and become a strong support for the high-quality development of global HS. Against this background, clarifying the spatiotemporal heterogeneity and driving mechanisms of the coupling and coordination between the PHS and real human settlements (RHS) is of great significance to the high-quality development of HS and providing a reasonable explanation of today’s man–land relationship. Therefore, we developed a theoretical framework system for describing PHS–RHS coupling and coordination based on multi-source data such as internet socialization, public utility, and remote sensing images, etc. Taking the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR), which is the key region consolidating China’s “two horizontal and three vertical” urbanization strategy, as a case study area, we have comprehensively analyzed the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the coupling and coordination of PHS and RHS and its driving mechanism in UAMRYR during the period of 2011–2021, by comprehensively applying the modified coupling coordination degree (CCD) and other models. The results show are as follows: (1) Temporal process—The CCD exhibited a reverse L-shaped increasing trend. The CCD class varied significantly, with the extremely uncoordinated and severely uncoordinated classes present at the beginning of the study period and disappearing toward the end of the study period, while the well coordinated and highly coordinated classes were absent at the beginning of the study period and appeared toward the end of the study period. (2) Spatial pattern—The CCD exhibited an equilateral triangle-shaped, core–margin spatial pattern and a characteristic of core polarization. Overall, the spatial distribution of the CCD exhibited a characteristic of “high in the central region, low in the eastern and western regions, and balanced in the south–north direction”. (3) Dynamic evolution—The CCD increased more rapidly in the north-eastern direction than in the south-western direction; the CCD exhibited north-eastward migration and dispersion, and the spatial variability decreased. (4) Driving mechanisms—The primary factors affecting the CCD varied significantly over time. The living system was dominant in the PHS, whereas the human system was dominant in the RHS. The PHS had a greater effect than the RHS on the CCD. The study broadens the research scope of human settlements geography, establishes a scientific foundation for advancing urban HS construction in the UAMRYR, and offers theoretical support for the high-quality development of cities in the UAMRYR.