Spatial correlation and interaction effect intensity between territorial spatial ecological quality and new urbanization level in Nanchang metropolitan area, China

•The NSCB model was constructed to evaluate the territorial ecological quality;•The LEPIP model was constructed to evaluate the new urbanization level;•The spatial correlation characteristics were analyzed from the micro-scale;•The interaction of urbanization factors on the ecological quality was explored;•High-quality development strategies for urbanization were formulated. While promoting the rapid development of social economy, new urbanization has brought great pressure to the ecological environment. It is of great significance to explore the interaction mechanism between ecological environment and new urbanization for the sustainable development of metropolitan area. The metropolitan area of Nanchang in China was taken as the research area, and based on remote sensing, meteorological and social statistics data, and considering the functions, structures and effects of urban, agricultural and ecological spaces as well as the realistic demands of new urbanization construction, this research constructed “natural foundation-structure-coerce-benefit” (NSCB) and “land use-economic-population-infrastructure-public service” (LEPIP) comprehensive assessment models to quantitatively analyze the spatial and temporal heterogeneity, spatial correlation and interaction strength of ecological quality and new urbanization level in the study area from mesoscopic and microscopic perspectives by using spatial analysis software such as ENVI, ArcGIS, Fragstats, Geoda and Geodetector. The results showed that the ecological environment quality and urbanization level of the land space in the study area were improved from 2005 to 2018, and the overall gap within the region was gradually reduced. The spatial relationship between land use efficiency and ecological quality was “synergistic-trade-off-synergistic”. The economic development level and ecological quality showed a gradually enhanced synergistic relationship, and the population urbanization, infrastructure construction and ecological quality showed an “N” type synergistic relationship. The results of interaction intensity showed that the combined effects of population urbanization, public service guarantee, land use efficiency and economic development had a great impact on the spatial heterogeneity of territorial ecological quality in the study area. Finally, we suggest that the urbanization construction in the study area should strengthen the industrial agglomeration effect, improve the efficiency of land output, build