## 1 Introduction  
With the rapid acceleration of global urbanization, human activities are increasingly encroaching upon high-quality ecological resources to secure development space, placing unprecedented pressure on ecosystems [1]. As core indicators for measuring the anthropogenic intensity and ecosystem condition, the human footprint (HF) and ecological quality (EQ) are closely tied to the coordinated development of human-environment relationships. HF reflects human interventions such as land use, infrastructure expansion, and economic activity [2], while EQ indicates the ecosystem's capacity to support biodiversity and ecological functions [3]. Amid rapid global environmental change, the intensifying conflicts between human activity and ecological systems have drawn growing international attention. At the regional scale, the absence of integrated tools and evaluation methods that combine anthropogenic pressures with ecological responses has hindered a deeper understanding of human-environment coupling mechanisms. Therefore, exploring the spatiotemporal interactions between HF and EQ and developing a dual-dimensional integrated management framework that considers both dimensions has become a pressing challenge for achieving coordinated human-environment development. Lake-ring urban agglomerations, characterized by both high levels of HF and strong EQ foundations, serve as critical governance units for promoting globally coordinated development of human-environment coupled systems. As one of the countries with the most extensive water systems in the world, China possesses 35.49 million hectares of water bodies. Its widely distributed lake resources have given rise to numerous water-dependent urban agglomerations that provide essential ecological support for regional development. Existing research indicates that compared with non-waterfront areas, urban agglomerations centered around lakes and water systems exhibit a more complex relationship between urban expansion and ecological protection, often reflecting more pronounced trade-offs and synergies [4]. In major freshwater lake regions such as Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Taihu Lake, Hongze Lake, and Chaohu Lake, rapid urbanization has triggered land use changes, spatial compression of lake zones, and habitat fragmentation, resulting in a range of systemic risks to regional ecological functions [5]. Clearly, there is an urgent need to address the imbalance between HF and EQ in lake-ring urban agglomerations from the perspective of coordinated human-environment development and to explore integrated management mechanisms. Doing so not only helps tackle China's current sustainability challenges but also offers valuable lessons for other economies facing similar issues. Given the unique geographical conditions of lake-ring urban agglomerations, a critical bottleneck lies in developing an integrated management framework to foster positive interactions between the HF and EQ. However, research on the interaction mechanisms between HF and EQ remains limited, particularly in lake-ring urban agglomerations. To address this gap, this study focuses on the following key research questions:  
1. How can a suitable HF-EQ interaction framework be constructed for lake-ring urban agglomerations? 2. What are the spatiotemporal evolution patterns and coupling effects between HF and EQ across different lake-ring urban agglomerations? 3. Which factors primarily drive the spatiotemporal differentiation of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between HF and EQ? 4. How can a static-dynamic integrated zoning approach achieves coordinated human-environment development in lake-ring urban agglomerations? Based on the proposed research questions, this study offers three main innovations and contributions: (1) Regarding the research perspective, this study is the first to select typical lake-ring urban agglomerations in China as the research focus.