Identifying the migration and evolution of Production-Living-Ecological space(PLE space) and understanding the changes of spatial characteristics triggered by it have a profound influence on optimizing the layout of national land space and improving utilization level. Taking the urban agglomeration in the upper reaches of the Yellow River basin as the research object

based on the transfer matrix

the spatio-temporal evolution rule of the PLE space in the study area from 2000 to 2020 was analyzed. On this basis

by means of the strength analysis model

the change stability brought by the spatial evolution was discussed and quantified

from the dual perspective of the primary and secondary classification of the PLE space

respectively. The results revealed that: (1) The spatial change of PLE space in the study area was active during the past 20 years

but with a decreasing tendency in the amount and the scale

which was also concentrated upon the Hubao Eryu urban agglomeration and the Ningxia urban agglomeration along the Yellow city cluster

with the distribution high in the east and low in the west. Nevertheless

the overall pattern was still dominated by the ecological space and the production and living space were followed. (2) During the past 20 years

the spatial change trend of PLE space in the basin was first strong and then weak

which was unstable as a whole. The increase of production and living space was active and stable

while the decrease tended to be gentle. The increase of ecological space tended to be gentle

but the decrease tended to be active

and the stress of the first two groups on the ecological space tended to be normal. At the same time

PLE space in the basin was frequently transferred to each other

and there were two stable systematic transformation modes of production-life

life-ecological. (3) The transformation of PLE space within the secondary classification level was the dominant reason for the change of production

living and ecological space

while the development of economic drive

the influence of urban attraction

as well as the guidance of macro policies were the internal mechanisms that caused the alternant change of PLE space in the basin. (4) The joint research framework of transfer matrix and the intensity analysis model would realize the integrated monitoring of change monitoring and the changes of the characteristics of the regional PLE space. The improvement of space utilization efficiency

regulation of urban scale

persistence of cultivated land protection

fulfillment of effective space exit mechanism

and giving play to the guiding role of macro policies on space transform will have positive impacts on the high-quality utilization of PLE space of the study area.