**5. Conclusions**

In this study, taking a typical area in the central Loess Plateau as the study area, WESV was explored and assessed, and the spatiotemporal relationship between WESV and driving factors was analyzed. The conclusions obtained are as follows:


(4) With the passage of time, the spatial distribution pattern of the influence of the four factors on WESV has changed, and the evolution directions are different. The response degree of WESV to per capita GDP has evolved gradually from low in the west and high in the east to low in the southwest and high in the northeast, and the laddering nature is stronger. The water area plays a leading role in the size of WESV, and the center of gravity of the influence of the water area proportion shifts from the north to the west, with a strong decreasing law. The distribution of the influence of water consumption on WESV has experienced three evolutionary stages: small in the west and large in the east, increases in a circular shape from the west to the outside, small in the north and large in the south.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, N.W. and Y.X.; methodology, Y.X. and N.W.; data curation, Q.W.; software, Y.X. and F.P.; validation, F.P. and Q.W.; analysis, Y.X. and N.W.; investigation, Y.X.; writing—original draft preparation, Y.X.; writing—review and editing, N.W. and Y.X.; visualization, F.P.; supervision, Q.W.; project administration, N.W.; funding acquisition, N.W. and Y.X. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant No. 51979221, the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi, Program No. 2021JLM-45, and the Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region, Xi'an University of Technology, Grant No. 2019KJCXTD-5.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** Sincerely, we gratefully acknowledge the State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region, Xi'an University of Technology, for providing support. In addition, thanks to Le Zhang for her help.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
