Abstract: Ecological comprehensive index can quantitatively and visually analyze the temporal and spatial variations of ecological environment quality in a region. Based on the five indices of fractional vegetation coverage, leaf area index, total primary productivity, land surface temperature and wetness obtained by MODIS satellite data in 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020, and coupled the comprehensive quality of the eco-environment (K), we analyzed the temporal and spatial variations of ecological quality along the Yellow River of Shanxi Province from 2001 to 2020 by using the principal component analysis and spatial autocorrelation method. The results showed that the mean value of K in the study area increased from 0.3354 to 0.4389 during 2001-2020. The ecological quality along the Yellow River of Shanxi Province improved overall, but with obvious temporal and spatial variations. On the large scale, it presented a pattern of “better in the south and worse in the north”. There was difference between hills and mountains on the small scale. It showed a trend of continuous improvement in time, but the rate of change was different. The trend of improvement in the south was stronger than that in the north. From 2001 to 2020, the global Moran I values of K were all greater than 0.93, indicating that the ecological quality along the Yellow River of Shanxi Province had a strong spatial correlation. The types of spatial agglomeration were mainly high-high and low-low. The high-high agglomeration areas were mainly distributed in blocks in the south, while the low-low agglomeration areas were mainly concentrated in the north. The ecological quality of areas alone the Yellow River of Shanxi Province had been greatly improved during the research period, but there was still obvious spatial heterogeneity, which need to strengthen ecological protection.

Key words: eco-environmental quality, ecological comprehensive index, spatial autocorrelation, the areas along the Yellow River of Shanxi Province