Abstract: This study investigates the interplay between water resource management and industrial economic growth across cities within the Yangtze River Economic Belt, aiming to promote harmonious advancement in regional water conservation efforts and economic development.Additionally, this research introduces the combinatorial empowerment TOPSIS model, which utilizes a binary evaluation system focusing on "water resource carrying capacity" and "industrial economic development".This model integrates measures of coupling coordination and the local Moran's I model approach to assess the coordination capacity between water resources and the industrial economic growth across 110 urban centers within the Yangtze River Economic Belt.The findings reveal the following insights: ① Between 2016 and 2022, there was an average 8.93% increase in the coupling and coordination degree between industrial economic growth and water resource capacity in the Yangtze River Economic Belt; ② Geographically, the middle and upstream regions of the Yangtze River Economic Belt exhibit higher coordination, while the lower regions demonstrate a pattern of increasing coupling in the north and decreasing in the south; ③ Regarding growth agglomeration characteristics, the spatial distribution of the increasing rate of coupling coordination degree shows a trend of "low in the east and high in the west" overall, with distinct temporal stages.From 2016 to 2019, there were widespread ranges characterized as "low/low clustering" and "high/high clustering" across the main study regions, however these regions contracted and shifted between 2019 and 2022.This study illuminates spatial and temporal variations and regional interconnections between water resource carrying capacity and industrial economic development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, offering a theoretical foundation for water resource management and regional development strategies.