## 3 Results  
### Population-Urbanization-Ecological Environment Coupling Analysis  
The overall coupling coordination degree of the population-urbanization-ecological environment (Figure 7a) in 2020 is 0.6, which is a moderate coupling state, indicating that 10 years of the new type of urbanization construction has effectively improved the relationship between the population, urbanization, and ecological environment and promoted their sustainable development. However, it is at a moderate coupling level overall, which indicates that the new type of urbanization is still in the development stage and needs to consider the impact of demographic and land use factors on urbanization. The reason why the coupling coordination degree has improved in the past 10 years is that urbanization has changed from a relatively lagging state in 2010 to a relatively synchronized state, while the ecological environment has also made significant progress. The degree of coupling coordination varies considerably across provinces. We found that only Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong have a coordination degree above 0.7, with Shanghai exceeding 0.8, indicating that all three have taken positive and effective actions in terms of the population, urbanization, and ecological environment and have significantly improved the quality of the ecological environment, population quality, and urbanization. However, the coupling coordination degree in Gansu, Xinjiang, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces is still low, and the improvement is not obvious, which may be due to the influence of lagging urbanization. Furthermore, the coupling coordination degree has grown faster over the decade in Anhui (19%), Guizhou (18%), Chongqing (16%), and Hubei (16%), indicating that these four provinces have made greater efforts to promote the new type of urbanization, effectively improving the balance between urban systems. Overall, in 2010, there were 6 mild disorder types, 21 primary coupling coordination types, and 4 moderate coupling coordination types, while in 2020, there was 1 mild disorder type, 23 primary coupling coordination types, and 7 moderate coupling coordination types. Overall, 10 years of the new type of urbanization has improved the quality of urbanization and furthered the sustainable development of the city.  
From the perspective of the relationship between the population and urbanization (Figure 7b), the coupling coordination degree between the two was the lowest in both 2010 and 2020, which was mainly caused by rapid urbanization, where the expansion of cities was much greater than the urbanization rate of the population, thus leading to a lower degree of coordination between the two. For example, in 2010, there were 21 provincial capitals with the mild disorder type, and the coupling coordination degree of the mild disorder type in 2020 was only 0.58, which was obviously lower than other types. However, in general, the 10 years of new type of urbanization effectively promoted the coordination between the two, and the overall coordination degree increased by 16% (Figure 7c). As indicated by the relationship between urbanization and the ecological environment (Figure 7d), the 10 years of the new type of urbanization has increased the coupling coordination degree of both from 0.52 to 0.62, an increase of 18%, which is the fastest increase among all coupling types. This indicates that urbanization has a compelling or promoting effect on  
Figure 6: The different combinations of the coordination degree and decoupling index.  
the ecological environment through technological progress, economic development, energy consumption, and urban management. At the same time, the ecological environment also has a constraining or carrying capacity. However, overall urbanization is still classified as the moderate coupling type, and there is still a contradictory relationship between urbanization and the ecological environment.