Cultural heritage sites are a comprehensive space constructed by a large number of signs and symbols, both material and immaterial, such as ancient architecture, folk customs, ritual traditions, and identity recognition. The Beijing Central Axis is located in the center of the old city of Beijing, with a total length of 7.8 km. It is not a single line, but a multidimensional dynamic space that encompasses multiple subjects, constantly constructing meaning, imagining symbols, and spreading narratives. It is a highly concentrated area of urban functions. Drawing on Lefebvre's dialectic of spatial triad, this study examined the spatial production characteristics and problems of the Beijing Central Axis from three levels—spatial practice, spatial representation, and representational space—through field research, case comparison, and social semantic network analysis. We found that protection of heritage and tourism practices driven by social factors and forces under the leadership of the government have reshaped the heritage and tourism space of the Beijing Central Axis, forming an important socialized structure of the current central axis space. This process is not only about the restoration and renewal of physical space, but also about the inheritance and innovation of social aspects and culture. However, this process is facing many challenges, including the high complexity of the heritage protection and management system, the lack of innovative interpretation of the overall value of the central axis, and an imbalance in the allocation of tourism space versus heritage space. Therefore, the relationships between power, interests, and cultural identity should be properly handled. In terms of heritage protection and management, the system should be further simplified, and a more efficient multisectoral coordination mechanism should be established; in terms of heritage value interpretation, the application of digital technology should be strengthened to enhance the accessibility and appeal of heritage; and in terms of public participation, the design of the tourism routes should be optimized to balance and enhance tourism space while enriching heritage space through diversifying community activities, education programs, and volunteer services.

Nature-based solutions (NbS) represent an efficient approach to utilizing natural resources while simultaneously protecting ecosystems, addressing the social, economic, and environmental challenges we face today. Recognized internationally as a cutting-edge method for ecosystem management, NbS can be effectively applied to the restructuring of rural spaces. This approach not only mitigates the ecological and environmental crises hindering rural development, but also unlocks the potential for rural growth, fostering comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. This study outlined the conceptual evolution of NbS, and explored the conceptual connotation of rural spatial restructuring based on NbS from the perspectives of various stakeholders, including local governments, village committees, rural business entities, and rural residents. The analysis was structured around four dimensions: ecological space, physical space, economic space, and social space. The research systematically examined the progress in restructuring the ecological space, physical space, economic space, and social space of rural areas through NbS, focusing on ecological conservation and landscape optimization, the optimization of production and living spaces, land consolidation and agricultural transformation, the commodification of natural landscapes, and balancing the needs and expectations of different stakeholders. The study concluded by suggesting future research directions, emphasizing the localization of NbS concepts, the establishment of multi-sectoral collaborative mechanisms, optimization strategies for resource and capital allocation, phased assessments of socioeconomic impacts, and the application of quantitative methods to measure socioeconomic benefits.

As the impact of global warming continues to escalate, the number and severity of extreme weather events have increased significantly, posing a huge threat to life and property. Existing disaster research often focuses on single events and ignores their inherent complexity and cumulative impacts resulting from their association with other events. Therefore, we urgently need to have a deeper understanding of the patterns and mechanisms of extreme disaster events. To fill this research gap, this study extracted high temperature-heavy rainfall compound events from the meteorological observation data of 1886 stations in China's mainland from 1961 to 2020 and used Theil-Sen median slope estimation and Mann-Kendall trend test to explore their spatiotemporal distribution and change characteristics. The proportion of compound events in single events, the change cycle of compound events, the impact of urbanization on compound events, and the disaster risk assessment of compound events were explored from multiple perspectives. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) The high temperature-heavy rainfall compound events mainly occurred in the eastern monsoon region, and the frequency of events was greatest in the central Sichuan Basin. 2) The frequency of compound events across the country and in each climate zone increased significantly during the study period, especially after 1990. 3) The proportion of compound events in extreme precipitation events increased significantly after 1990. 4) The North China Plain, Huang-Huai, Jiang-Huai, Jiang-Han, Sichuan Basin, and South China coastal areas were at high risk of disasters, and the above areas urgently need to give priority to effective early warning and response strategies to mitigate the impact of compound events.

In the context of climate warming, the risk of extreme rainfall-induced flash floods has become one of the major constraints on sustainable socioeconomic development. This study focused on the Magui River Basin in western Guangdong Province to investigate the impact of land surface changes on extreme rainfall-flash flood hazard. First, a regionalized extreme rainfall-flash flood numerical model was constructed to simulate flood inundation characteristics under extreme rainfall scenarios. Subsequently, multi-source remote sensing data were used to interpret the characteristics of human construction activities, river engineering activities, and natural factor changes, and different land surface change scenarios were established. Finally, based on the relationship between extreme rainfall-flash flood hazards and land surface characteristic changes, the quantitative impact of land surface changes on flash flood hazards was analyzed. The results indicate that within the study area, human construction activities had a significantly greater influence on flash flood hazard changes than natural factors, with river engineering activities, particularly channel widening, showing notable effectiveness in extreme rainfall-flash flood hazard prevention and control. Specifically, when the area of river engineering activities increased by 5.72%, the high-risk and medium-risk zones for extreme rainfall-flash flood hazards decreased by 11.53% and 7.99%, respectively. An increase in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from 0.19 to 0.58 (an increase of 0.39) resulted in reductions of 1.96% and 1.07% in these two risk zones, respectively. This study's findings can guide disaster prevention and mitigation engineering and regional planning at the watershed scale, in order to reduce regional extreme rainfall-flash flood disaster risks.

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (hereinafter referred to as Inner Mongolia) is an important ecological barrier in northern China. Under the joint drive of natural and human factors, the dynamic process of vegetation change in Inner Mongolia has significantly varied since the twenty-first century. However, there is still a lack of systematic quantitative research on the location, degree, and occurrence of abrupt changes in vegetation, and the contribution of different driving factors. This study selected six remote sensing vegetation indices and used the Theil-Sen trend, Mann-Kendall test, and Breaks for Additive Season and Trend methods to monitor the spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation greening and browning in Inner Mongolia from 2000 to 2022. The contributions of natural and human factors were quantitatively analyzed using the improved Residual Trends method and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The results show that: 1) From 2000 to 2022, 29.62%-36.96% of the areas in Inner Mongolia experienced vegetation greening, while only 0.36%-0.51% of the areas experienced browning. Positive abrupt changes mainly occurred in grasslands (35.9%) in the central and western regions and forested areas in the eastern region (25.7%), while 42.7% of the negative abrupt changes occurred in the western grassland areas such as Chifeng City and western Hulunbuir City. 2) Climate change dominated 88.8% of vegetation greening and 62.8% of vegetation browning in the study area, with 5.8% of greening and 14.8% of browning being dominated by land use. Both factors had positive effects on vegetation greening areas and negative impacts on browning areas. 3) For greening areas and browning areas, direct impact of temperature, soil moisture, population density, and land use intensity had dominant effects on most areas. The direct and indirect effects of various factors exhibited significant spatial heterogeneity in distribution. This study can provide a scientific guidance for the development of ecological restoration in Inner Mongolia.

The non-grain production of cultivated land in China is becoming increasingly severe. A comprehensive understanding of the patterns of change and formation mechanisms of non-grain production of cultivated land is of great significance for enhancing cultivated land protection and ensuring food security. Currently, there are diverse perspectives and methodologies for measuring non-grain production yet the results vary significantly, and comparative and integrated research on various measurement methods remains inadequate. Therefore, this study employed a meta-analysis approach to statistically examine 207 existing research articles, revealing the characteristics of change and driving mechanisms of non-grain production of cultivated land in China from 2000 to 2021. The findings are as follows: 1) The methods of non-grain crop area proportion, multiple cropping index, and autumn grain crop area are frequently used and widely applied, offering comparability at the national, regional, and provincial scales, which can be considered preferred methods for measuring non-grain production of cultivated land. 2) During the study period of this research, the rate of non-grain production of cultivated land in China remained stable at around 30.0% overall, with a slight downward fluctuation. Among the nine major agricultural regions, the Northeast China Plain, the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, and the Loess Plateau had non-grain production rates below 30.0% that remained relatively stable, the rate of non-grain production of cultivated land in South China was higher than 50.0% and the increase was larger, while in other regions the rates were in the range of 30.0% to 50.0%, with a general increase of 10.0% to 20.0%. The rate and growth of non-grain production of cultivated land were both lower in the northern grain crop planting regions than in the southern regions, which gradually increased in the main grain-producing areas, grain balanced areas, and main grain-marketing areas. At the provincial level, non-grain production exhibited a dynamic process characterized by clustered incremental increases and phased differentiation. 3) Non-grain production of cultivated land in China is influenced by multiple factors, including natural environment, economic development, social activities, policies, and technology. Through the foundational, bidirectional, driving, and regulatory effects of common and differential factors, the driving effects of non-grain production of cultivated land such as background, catalytic, enhancement, and retardation effects are formed. This study supports the viewpoints of many scholars, provides data references for in-depth research on the socioeconomic and natural environmental effects of non-grain production, and proposes optimization strategies for the effective implementation of scientific measures to manage non-grain production of cultivated land.

Based on the agricultural product e-commerce data of Taobao and Jingdong from 2012 to 2022, this study analyzed the development trend and spatial distribution pattern of China's agricultural product e-commerce industry by using kernel density analysis, average nearest neighbor index, and standard deviation ellipse. It also explored the driving factors and formation mechanisms by using multiscale geographically weighted regression in combination with the macro economic data of prefectural-level cities. The results of the study show that: 1) The spatial distribution pattern of agricultural product e-commerce industry is highly consistent with China's human and natural geographic factors, and shows the characteristics of regional agglomeration. 2) The spatial direction of industrial development shows a pattern of northeast-south (slightly eastward), forming a multicore circular structure with gradient diffusion from the center to the periphery, and the change and layout of the industry show a dependency on the established development path, presenting an unbalanced spatial distribution. 3) There is an obvious spatial heterogeneity in the driving effects of various factors for the agricultural product e-commerce industry, and there is a general tendency for the driving role of industrial structure factors, economic and social development factors, market potential factors, and government support factors to gradually decrease from east to west, and the driving role of infrastructure factors shows a tendency of gradual decrease from south to north. Based on the above conclusions, this article put forward the following policy recommendations: 1) Each region should primarily focus on exploring the market and stabilize the relationship between production and marketing for the development of agricultural product e-commerce. 2) The positive role of policy guidance should be further utilized to provide more positive externality inputs for the development of e-commerce in the western region. 3) Infrastructure development of agricultural products logistics should be further strengthened. 4) In the development of the industry, different regions need to take into account their own actual situation and implement targeted measures to avoid wasting resources.

New quality productive forces act as a bridge for balanced economic development between urban and rural areas. This study analyzed the change of China's new quality productive forces using the panel data from prefecture-level cities spanning from 2011 to 2021. Through the application of mediation effect models and spatial econometric models, the study examined the influence of new quality productive forces on the urban-rural income gap, the mechanisms at play, and the spatial spillover effects. The results indicate that: 1) Since 2011, the overall level of new quality productive forces in Chinese prefecture-level cities had shown a steady upward trend, with significant spatial clustering characteristics. The various components of the new quality productive forces exhibited a "point and area clustering" spatial pattern. 2) The development of new quality productive forces had a significant positive impact on reducing the urban-rural income gap. This conclusion remained valid after robustness and endogeneity tests. 3) The results of the mediation effect analysis confirm that improvements in new quality productive forces in Chinese cities not only contribute to narrowing the urban-rural income gap overall but also affect the gap through mechanisms such as enhancing labor productivity and resource allocation efficiency. 4) The results of the spatial econometric analysis indicate that the development of new quality productive forces in China had a positive spillover effect on the urban-rural income gap. While it reduced the gap within a region, it also positively influenced the narrowing of the gap in neighboring regions. The enhancement of new quality productive forces is crucial for optimizing regional layouts. Moving forward, it is essential to integrate urban-rural coordinated development goals with the cultivation of these productive forces, emphasizing their positive impact on promoting urban-rural coordinated development.

China is entering an era characterized by severe aging and high population mobility. Identifying regional types of population aging from the perspective of population mobility is essential for the effective implementation of national strategies aimed at addressing aging-related problems across various regions. This study proposed a method for categorizing regional types of population aging by integrating the composite index method of population mobility with elderly population location quotient. Using county-level data from the fifth, sixth, and seventh Chinese censuses, the study identified regional types of population aging across Chinese counties from 2000 to 2020, classifying them into seven categories: aging-in-place, (reverse) accumulation, (reverse) congregation, and (reverse) recomposition. Subsequently, a multiple linear regression model was employed to analyze the factors contributing to population aging in different regional types. The conclusions are as follows: 1) The spatial distribution of aging-in-place counties has significantly contracted, with the Huang-Huai-Hai region, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and southern areas of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangxi identified as the primary regions. 2) The distribution range of accumulation counties has expanded to the Northeast, Chengdu-Chongqing region, mid-Yangtze River Basin, and most part of of Gansu Province, while reverse accumulation counties are primarily located around the Pearl River Delta, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and southern Xinjiang. 3) Congregation counties are mainly urban districts within prefecture-level cities or county-level cities, while reverse congregation counties are concentrated in the core areas of the Beijing-Tianjin, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations. 4) Recomposition and reverse recomposition counties are mainly distributed in the northwestern half of the Hu Line, with the number of recomposition counties decreasing while reverse recomposition counties increasing. 5) Population aging in aging-in-place counties is primarily determined by regional socioeconomic development; population aging in congregation and reverse congregation counties is mainly influenced by population inflow; in accumulation and reverse accumulation counties, population outflow has altered the regional aging process; and in recomposition and reverse recomposition counties, the aging process is affected by both population inflow and outflow.

Harbin loess is situated at the easternmost end of the Eurasian loess belt, which has great significance for revealing the eastward expansion process of aridification in the Asian inland region. The previous bottom boundary age of Harbin loess deposits is in contradiction with the process of aridification in Asia, which limits the understanding of the coupling process of climate, landform, tectonic movement, and drainage evolution in the Songnen Plain area. Therefore, in this study, the high-resolution ¹⁴C, OSL, and ESR dating of the Huangshan loess section in Harbin was carried out, and the analysis confirmed the validity of the established chronological framework through the fitting and extrapolation of the actual dating results. The following conclusions were drawn: 1) The bottom boundary age of the loess in Harbin is 170 ka based on the Bayesian model. 2) Harbin loess is located in the northern edge of the East Asian monsoon climate region, which represents the aeolian deposition of the easternmost end of the Eurasian loess belt. The beginning of loess deposits in Harbin indicates that their source area had undergone obvious aridification, which means that the formation of the Songnen sandy land should not be later than 170 ka BP, and this also further confirms the eastward movement process of aridification in Asian inland region. 3) The loess deposits in Harbin are a response to the climate, tectonic movement (uplift of Songliao watershed), and drainage evolution (the drainage evolution of the Songhua River system and the extinction of the Songnen paleolake) of the Songnen Plain. Therefore, on the basis of a reliable age frame, the bottom boundary age of Harbin loess plays a certain role in limiting the estimated time of the tectonic uplift of Songliao watershed and drainage evolution of the Songhua River.

In the past few decades, a warming-wetting trend has been observed in the arid and semiarid Northwest China, especially in Xinjiang. According to the Clausius-Clapeyron (C-C) relationship, the atmospheric moisture-holding capacity increases with rising temperature, which may lead to an intensification of extreme precipitation. In this study, we examined the spatial distribution of scaling relationships between precipitation and dew point temperature in Xinjiang, using intra-annual binning scaling and inter-annual trend scaling based on station observations and ERA5. The results show that the predominant binning scaling in Xinjiang is sub C-C scaling (0%/°C-5%/°C), transitioning from northern Xinjiang to C-C like scaling (5%/°C-9%/°C) or super C-C scaling (>9%/°C) near the Tianshan Mountains and southern Xinjiang. The observed trend scaling exhibited a similar spatial pattern to that of binning scaling, but with more super C-C scaling. Furthermore, the reduction in vertical velocity at the southern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains may lead to a decrease in precipitation intensity. Overall, these findings provide a solid basis for enhancing our understanding of how climate change influences precipitation events in Xinjiang.

The Hukou transfer intention of migrant workers serves as a forward-looking indicator for assessing the process of granting permanent urban residency to eligible people who move from rural to urban areas. It is essential for advancing the new urbanization strategy and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. This research aimed to provide some insights for the implementation of policies on granting permanent urban residency to eligible migrant workers. Using data from the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS), we conducted an updated and comprehensive study on the characteristics and determinants of migrant workers' Hukou transfer intentions, from the perspective of source areas. The results suggest that at present, migrant workers generally have a low inclination to transfer their Hukou, and those who aspire to transfer Hukou are most likely to settle in county seats, followed by provincial capitals and municipalities, and then prefecture-level cities. Furthermore, migrant workers prefer to transfer their Hukou to the local and nearby areas, considering distant locations only as a secondary option, and an integrated analysis revealed that nearby county seats are the most desirable locations for such migrant workers. The results also demonstrate that family characteristics and mobility features closely related to the family are common determinants, having significant effect on both the migrant workers' intentions to transfer Hukou and the intended Hukou transfer place. Urban housing and home trip frequency are also key factors that influence the decision-making process of migrant workers when it comes to Hukou transfer. The development of the collectives' economy in their original villages is crucial for deciding whether to transfer Hukou to urban areas, while the distance to county seats and the living environment in their original villages significantly influence the choice of transfer location. The results offer a deeper understanding of the Hukou transfer decisions made by migrant workers and provide policy insights for addressing the challenges of their urban integration and advancing the new urbanization strategies.

Tourism destination is a core concept in tourism research and tourism practice, but the analysis of the trends, key directions, and theoretical bases of tourism destination research is not clear enough. In this case, neither researchers nor professionals have reached a consensus on the definition of a tourist destination. Although a few studies have conducted in-depth analysis of the keyword co-occurrence network and evolution of tourism destination research, there is a lack of coding, classification, and reflection of the research content. In addition, the exploration of the conceptual nature of tourism destination as a unit of analysis needs to be further developed to provide a fuller cognitive picture for the theorization of tourism destination. Therefore, this study used systematic literature review and bibliometric research methods to examine and reflect on the Chinese literature from 1998 to 2024. The results show that: 1) The research on tourism destinations can be divided into four stages, the abundance and depth of the research topics are deepening, and the co-occurrence map also shows a concentrated trend in the time series, among which tourism image, destination residents, and rural tourism are the topics with high attention. 2) The meta-themes of tourism destination research include 23 categories, which can be divided mainly into five levels: tourism destination image, marketing and brand; tourist perception, attitude, and behavior; rural tourism host and guest perception and culture; tourism destination patterns, processes, and mechanisms; and heritage tourism destination governance and residents' livelihood. 3) The research on tourism destinations is mainly carried out under the paradigm of tourism management and tourism geography, and the related theories of life cycle, glocalization, and social construction are insufficient to understand the complexity of tourism destinations, while the emphasis of social-material theory on networks, heterogeneous actors, and relationship effects provides another possibility for understanding the integrity and dynamics of tourism destination reproduction. This study aimed to clarify the genealogy of tourism destination research and deepen the theoretical exploration of the conceptualization of tourism destination.

The study on the location of innovative enterprises can help optimize the allocation of resources and promote the high-quality development of urban economy.Using data of high technology enterprises and technology-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from 2019 to 2021, this study examined the spatial distribution characteristics of different innovative enterprises in Beijing, used the negative binomial regression model and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model to explore the influence and scale effect of place factors and flow factors on enterprise location selection, and discussed the differences. The results show that: 1) The spatial distribution of innovative enterprises presents obvious multi-level characteristics of unbalanced distribution, dual-ring structure, and park-oriented clustering. Compared with high technology enterprises, the polarization and agglomeration degree of technology-based SMEs are higher. 2) The key common factors for the location selection of innovative enterprises are the industrial foundation and informal networks. In contrast, the impact intensity of other factors varies due to the heterogeneity of enterprise innovation capabilities. 3) Place factors are mostly global variables, while flow factors are mostly local variables, and there are differences in the scale effects and spatial heterogeneity of the impact of these two types of factors on the location selection of the two types of enterprises. 4) The coupled effects of geographical agglomeration and network agglomeration drive the location selection of different types of innovative enterprises. Therefore, it is important to focus on the comprehensive factors of place and flow dimensions and to implement differentiated strategies based on the type of innovative enterprises.

Based on 220 survey questionnaires collected from Hongni Village, Pingshun County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province and the perspectives of positive tourism impact perception and negative tourism impact perception, combining the mediation effect of the interaction between hosts and guests and the moderating effect of place attachment, this study used the structural equation model and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the formation mechanism and improvement pathways of residents' subjective well-being in rural tourism destinations. The results show that both positive tourism impact perception and negative tourism impact perception directly affect subjective well-being. There exist some mediation effects in the above two pathways. Place attachment has a negative moderating effect on the positive perception of tourism impact and subjective well-being, and a positive moderating effect on the negative perception of tourism impact and subjective well-being. The simultaneous occurrence of high levels of positive impact perception and place attachment is the sufficient condition with strongest explanatory power for obtaining subjective well-being. The research results provide some practical guidance for revealing the mechanism of impact of subjective well-being and improving the subjective well-being of local residents in rural tourism destinations.

China is currently undergoing a pivotal transition towards an innovation-driven economy, and there is an urgent need for universities to play a more significant role in regional innovation. A systematic review of the relevant theoretical and empirical studies in Western economic geography can provide a scientific basis for China to further clarify the functions of universities in the innovation system and to formulate regional innovation strategies. In this study, the role of universities in regional innovation was first conceptualized from six dimensions: human capital, knowledge transfer, knowledge brokers, entrepreneurial activities, engagement patterns, and innovation effects. These dimensions stem from the three missions of universities, namely teaching, research, and regional development. Second, we analyzed the dominant channels, spatial scales, influencing factors, and corresponding policy implications of universities' engagement in regional innovation by reviewing six theoretical frameworks—the linear innovation model and university knowledge spillover, the nonlinear interactive innovation model and relational university, the regional innovation system and regional innovation system university, the triple helix and entrepreneurial university, the adaptive response and engaged university, and the innovation network and broker university. The contributions of these theoretical frameworks to the study of the six dimensions were then compared. Third, the applicability of three empirical methods—case studies, econometric modeling, and social network analysis—was evaluated in terms of their suitability for conducting research on the six dimensions. Fourth, research frontiers were outlined in terms of the channel complexity and regional heterogeneity of universities' external impacts, and the optimization of theories and methodologies for assessing the role of universities. The extant literature on the theoretical frameworks that inform our understanding of the role of universities in regional innovation presents three major trends: 1) Intellectual property activities in universities have been progressively emphasized, with the objective of emulating the successful practices of a few exemplary universities. 2) The third mission of universities is being expanded by key theoretical frameworks dedicated to meeting the development needs of the host region. 3) Functional distances of universities that influence external regions are gradually being superseded by a regional scale, with the aim of enabling universities to serve local development. Theoretical frameworks on this topic are closely related to development strategies and innovation policy adjustments across countries. Additionally, our findings indicate that the three empirical methods have been extensively employed to investigate the role of universities in regional innovation. However, it is evident that none of these methods can fully address the six dimensions of research simultaneously. Case studies are frequently used to examine engagement patterns, while econometric models offer distinct advantages in the analysis of knowledge transfer and innovation effects. Social network analysis is also gaining prominence in the examination of knowledge transfer and knowledge brokers. As in Western universities and regions, intellectual property activities have become the primary means of knowledge and technology transfer in universities in China. However, the contribution of Chinese universities to regional innovation remains limited. In light of these findings, future research should focus on the Chinese context and regional differences, employing a combination of empirical methods to examine the role of universities in regional innovation.

Historical land use and cover change (LUCC) is an important field of global change research. Since ancient times, irrigation has been a vital approach of intensive land use in China, and influenced the development of China's agriculture and society. However, direct records of irrigated cropland areas in historical materials are extremely scarce, which results in a very unclear understanding of the change in the scale of irrigated cropland in China's historical periods. In this study, we selected the north of Anyang City, Henan Province, which has a long history of irrigation in China, as the case study area. We first extracted records of exact and approximate irrigation scales, and the length and number of canals from historical documents, gazetteers since the Qing Dynasty, journal publications, and statistical yearbooks for the north of Anyang City since the Warring States period. Then we explored and developed a methodology to reconstruct the change of historical irrigated cropland at the regional millennial-scale based on multiple data sources through indicator quantification and data fusion, and elucidated the change and characteristics of the scale of irrigated cropland in the study area from the Warring States period to the present (423 B.C.-2015). The main results are as follows: 1) From the Warring States period to 2015, the scale of irrigated cropland in the north of Anyang City showed a fluctuating upward trend, increased from about 100000 mu to 910000 mu (1 mu=1/15 hm²). It only grew by 40000 mu before 1949, while the increase was about 770000 mu after 1949. 2) The end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the early Tang Dynasty, and the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty were the peak periods of fluctuating change in the scale of irrigated cropland before 1949, when the scale of irrigated cropland reached 420000 mu. The Sixteen Kingdoms period, the middle of the Tang Dynasty, and the late period of 1912-1948 were trough periods of the scale of irrigated cropland, when irrigated cropland shrunk to 100000 mu. The high comparability of the reconstruction results of this study with the prosperity and decline of the Chinese society through history and the construction and abandonment of farmland water conservancy projects in other regions, and the correspondence with climate change and forest destruction all confirm the reliability of the reconstruction results.

The development endowment of urban areas of counties determines the development potential and is the driving mechanism for realizing this potential in county urbanization, which plays a leading role in shaping county urbanization progress. Based on a proposed theoretical framework of county urbanization development endowment, this study selected Southwest China as the research object, and employed the TOPSIS entropy weight method, Kernel density estimation, and the spatial Durbin model to explore the spatiotemporal change characteristics of county urbanization development endowments and mechanisms in Southwest China from 2000 to 2020. The results reveal that: 1) From 2000 to 2020, the development endowment level of county urbanization in Southwest China was relatively low, with a slow growth rate. The spatial distribution gradually evolved from a continuous patch distribution of high in the south and low in the north to a clustered pattern. High-value areas were primarily concentrated around provincial capitals and regional central cities, while low-value areas were mainly located in regions with fragile ecological environment, weak economic foundation, and backward infrastructure. 2) Over the two decades, all five sub-dimensions of county urbanization development endowment in Southwest China exhibited a steady upward trend, ranked as natural ecological environment, endowment, residential environment endowment, public service facilities endowment, non-agricultural industry development endowment, and sociocultural environment endowment. 3) The improvement in the level of county urbanization in Southwest China generated a positive spatial spillover effect on surrounding areas. The development endowment significantly enhanced urbanization development and exhibited boundary effect. 4) The spatial effects of the sub-dimensional endowments showed distinct regional heterogeneity, with the non-agricultural industry development endowment in urban agglomerations and the social and cultural environment endowment in non-urban agglomeration areas having significant negative spatial spillover effects. 5) The urbanization of counties in Southwest China is jointly driven by the non-agricultural industry development endowment, public service facilities endowment, living environment endowment, social and cultural environment endowment, and natural ecological environment endowment.

Exploring the evolution characteristics and influencing factors of forest land fragmentation in China is of great significance for promoting high-quality development in the forestry sector and enhancing the ecosystem service value of forests. Based on land cover data from 1992 to 2022, this study constructed a comprehensive forestland fragmentation indicator system using multidimensional landscape pattern metrics and analyzed the spatial-temporal trends and drivers of forestland fragmentation across China with spatial statistics and machine learning models. The findings are as follows: 1) In the study period, China's forestland fragmentation indices showed a shift around 2004, with a trend of gradual decline-fluctuating increase. Forest patch size, edge density, and shape regularity exhibited a decline-slight increase trend, while spatial dispersal followed a cyclical low-high-low-high fluctuation. 2) Spatially, forestland fragmentation was high in the south and low in the north, with the highest levels in Southeast China's low mountains and hilly forests, followed by tropical and southwestern mountainous forests, and the lowest in the northwestern mountains and the Inner Mongolia and Northeast forest regions. At the provincial level, fragmentation values peaked in Guizhou, gradually declining outward, with significant fragmentation also observed in Guangxi, Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, and Yunnan. 3) The drivers of forestland fragmentation varied across periods and regions. Throughout the study period, forest management practices generally mitigated fragmentation, while increasing population density and rising temperatures intensified it. From 1992 to 2001, temperature and timber production were the primary influences on fragmentation; from 2002 to 2011, cropland area and collective forest area became more impactful; and from 2012 to 2022, collective forest area became the leading factor. 4) An examination of the interaction effects among the drivers revealed that in areas with low precipitation and limited forest management intensity, excessive afforestation can exacerbate fragmentation, while fragmentation trends are stronger in regions with higher rainfall and temperatures. Afforestation helps mitigate the adverse impacts of cropland expansion on forestland fragmentation.This study deepens the understanding of forestland spatial pattern evolution in China, identifies regional drivers of fragmentation, and provides a theoretical basis and policy support for optimizing forestland management, promoting intensive use, and enhancing forest ecosystem services.

Cross-city patient mobility vividly encapsulates the supply and demand dynamics of medical resources across urban landscapes. By exploring the spatial patterns and determinant factors of the cross-city medical network, valuable insights can be gleaned to enhance regional healthcare systems. In this study, using a robust dataset of nearly 500000 online patient comments, a cross-city medical network within the Yangtze River Economic Belt was constructed. This network was rigorously analyzed using sophisticated social network analysis and exponential random graph models to decipher its spatial configurations and driving forces. The findings of the study are multifaceted: 1) The cross-city medical network in the Yangtze River Economic Belt predominantly exhibited a single-core and multi-centers pattern in terms of supply distribution, whereas demand scales down progressively from west to east, indicating a geographic gradient in medical resource utilization. The supply-demand relationships are characterized by single-center aggregations. 2) Spatially, the intercity medical services within the region are organized into a three-tier hierarchical structure, spanning from ordinary cities to provincial capitals, with Shanghai serving as a superlative node. This pattern, however, is occasionally disrupted by cities that transcend these conventional boundaries of the region. 3) Enhancements in geographical, institutional, social, and cultural proximities are observed to significantly bolster intercity patient mobility, underscoring the importance of multi-dimensional connectivity in healthcare access and delivery. This study proposed an innovative analytical framework for understanding the spatial organization of intercity medical services and constructed a proximity analysis model tailored to patient mobility. By revealing the intricate structure of the cross-city medical network in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and its influencing factors, this study contributes theoretical and empirical insights that can inform strategic planning and policy making aimed at optimizing the regional distribution of medical resources in the region. This research not only aids in theoretical advancements but also serves as a practical guide for healthcare policymakers seeking to refine resource allocation and enhance service delivery in complex urban networks.

With the development of the country and the progress of society, China's medical resources have become increasingly advanced. However, due to regional differences, there still exists an imbalance in the distribution of medical resources. Accessibility, as an effective tool, is often employed by scholars to measure the spatial balance of medical resources. With the increasingly common practice of long-distance medical treatment seeking, it has obvious scientific significance and application value to explore the accessibility of high-quality medical resources at the regional level. Considering the increasingly prominent position of high-speed railway in intercity passenger transportation, this study took the Yangtze River Delta region as an example to examine the high-quality medical resources accessibility issue. The cumulative opportunity method and hierarchical two-step mobile search method (H2SFCA) were used to analyze the accessibility of regional high-quality medical resources under road transportation and land transportation considering high-speed rail, respectively, and to explore the impact of high-speed rail on accessibility. The results show that: 1) The accessibility of high-quality medical resources in the Yangtze River Delta is generally high in the east and low in the west. With the increase of the time threshold, the core-periphery pattern of accessibility becomes prominent, and the region around Taihu Lake becomes the center of high accessibility because it is located in the enclosed area of Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou. 2) High-speed rail shortens travel time and improves the average cumulative opportunity accessibility of high-quality medical resources in the Yangtze River Delta; At the same time, the number of people served by the top three hospitals increased, the supply and demand ratio of medical services decreased correspondingly, and the average H2SFCA accessibility of high-quality medical resources in the region decreased. The accessibility of the study units along the Beijing-Shanghai, Nanjing-Anqing, and Hefei-Hangzhou high-speed railways is significantly improved under the influence of high-speed railways, and the high accessibility values show a high-speed rail directivity when considering the land transport modes of highway and high-speed railways. 3) The cumulative opportunity method only considers the number of medical resources, and the municipality directly under the central government (Shanghai) and the provincial capitals are the centers of high accessibility at different time thresholds; Considering the supply and demand of hospitals and residents' choice of medical treatment, the H2SFCA accessibility in Shanghai and provincial capitals is significantly lower than the cumulative opportunity accessibility, showing a dip at the time thresholds of 2 h and 3 h. The supply of high-quality medical resources in Shanghai, Hefei, and Hangzhou is relatively insufficient, and hierarchical diagnosis and treatment should be continuously promoted, the referral mechanism should be optimized, and the pressure of high-level medical institutions should be reduced.

Urban vitality is the organic component and strong driving force of high-quality urban development. As a special area for national security and under the influence of multiple powers, the urban vitality of border cities is vulnerable to the comprehensive impact of complex geopolitical situations, domestic opening-up policies, and their own development conditions. This study constructed an urban vitality evaluation system composed of economic vitality, social vitality, and cultural vitality, attempting to measure the urban vitality of border counties in Yunnan Province in 2013, 2015, 2019, and 2022, explore their spatial differentiation patterns, and analyze the influencing factors with the help of Geo-detector. The results show that: 1) The urban vitality of border counties in Yunnan presented an obvious spatial heterogeneity, strong vitality was concentrated in the southeast of Yunnan while the west developed slowly, and the policy supports and COVID-19 pandemic had an important impact on local development. 2) The spatial agglomeration effect was significant, and the spatially correlated cooperation of adjacent regions was continuously enhancing and evolving with time. 3) Tourism development and foreign trade were the key factors affecting urban vitality, and the synergistic effect of factors changed significantly in different years. This study extended the theory of urban vitality to border cities and built an assessment framework based on the geographical characteristics of the border. The results provide a useful reference for the sustainable and healthy development of border areas.

Accurately quantifying the complex relationships between urban rail transit and residential property prices along its lines can help optimize land resource utilization and enhance residents' well-being. Taking Lanzhou City as a case, this study employed multi-source heterogeneous data to develop a methodology that integrates an Optuna-optimized XGBoost model with the interpretability techniques of SHAP-PDP. This approach aims to investigate the mechanisms through which subway characteristics influence housing prices and quantitatively analyze the interactive effects between subway characteristics and other key influencing factors. The results reveal that: 1) The XGBoost model outperforms decision trees, random forests, gradient boosting decision trees, and CatBoost, achieving an explanatory power of 77.29%, making its predictions more reliable. 2) Property management fees, betweenness centrality, vegetation coverage, density of transportation facilities, and density of financial institutions are the top five contributors to housing prices, collectively accounting for 46.07% of relative importance. Among subway-related characteristics, network centrality of subway stations exerts a significantly greater impact on housing prices than proximity to the nearest station. 3) The effects of distance to subway station, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality on housing prices exhibit nonlinear characteristics with distinct threshold effects, indicating that the influence intensity fluctuates significantly with changing conditions. 4) Apart from property management fees, subway characteristics interact intricately with vegetation coverage, density of functional facilities, and building age, yielding positive interactive effects only within specific ranges. Therefore, maintaining various feature elements within optimal ranges is an effective approach to capturing land value premiums. The findings provide a theoretical reference for scientifically assessing the impact of rail transit on urban development, helping to avoid decision-making blind spots caused by information asymmetry. Additionally, they offer policy insights for achieving stable housing price regulation and enhancing the efficiency of urban spatial governance.

Cultivating and guiding new quality productivity to empower the high-quality development of resource-based regions is an inherent requirement and important focus for advancing Chinese style modernization and modernization of national governance. This study incorporated new quality productivity into the theoretical analysis framework for high-quality development in resource-based regions, systematically expounded the theoretical basis for new quality productivity empowering the transformation and high-quality development of resource-based regions, and empirically examined the mechanism and effects of new quality productivity empowering high-quality development of resource-based regions using benchmark regression models, multiple mediation effect models, and spatial Durbin models based on the panel data from 23 resource-based cities in Northeast China from 2010 to 2022. The research findings indicate that: 1) The promotion effect of new quality productivity on high-quality development of resource-based regions was significant, and this effect exhibited characteristics of regional differences, differences in development stages, and structural heterogeneity. 2) New quality productivity provided a solid foundation for the realization of high-quality development of resource-based regions through multiple channels such as technological innovation, industrial structure transformation and upgrading, and optimization of resource factor allocation, among which the mediation effect of industrial structure upgrading was the most significant. 3) New quality productivity had a positive spatial spillover effect on the high-quality development of neighboring resource-based cities. These findings not only help to theoretically clarify the connection between new quality productivity and high-quality development of resource-based regions, enrich the sustainability assessment framework of new quality productivity from the perspective of high-quality development of resource-based regions, but also help to guide local governments in formulating differentiated development strategies at the practical level, providing a policy basis for coordinating new quality productivity and advancing the tasks and goals of Chinese style modernization and modernization of national governance.

It is crucial for achieving the dual carbon goals and promoting high-quality urban development to reveal the heterogeneity of urban sprawl's impact on carbon emissions in the Yellow River Basin, and establish a scientific basis for coordinating urbanization with low-carbon development. This study evaluated the degree of urban sprawl based on long-term nighttime light imagery and LandScan population data, and empirically examined the impact of urban sprawl on carbon emissions and its spatial effects in 91 prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin during 2004-2021 using the spatial Durbin model. It also used the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model to assess the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of these effects. The findings demonstrate that, first, a pronounced spatial disparity and spatial aggregation in carbon emissions existed across the study region, with higher levels in the eastern part compared to the western areas. While aggregate carbon emissions continued to rise annually, the rate of increase has shown consistent deceleration. Second, urban sprawl exhibited both significant direct and indirect effects. This result suggests that urban sprawl not only affected the carbon emissions of a city itself but also had spillover effects on those of the neighbors. Third, urban sprawl contributed to the rise in carbon emissions through three principal pathways: expanding the quantity and scale of industrial enterprises, extending residents' commuting distances, and elevating household energy consumption. Finally, the impact of urban sprawl on carbon emissions showed an upward trend in temporal variation, with a dynamic change characteristic of homogenization-differentiation-homogenization. In terms of spatial heterogeneity, the impact of urban sprawl on carbon emissions was predominantly positive, high coefficients mainly concentrated in the midstream regions, and low values mainly occurred in both the upstream and downstream areas. From the perspective of spatial evolution, the impact of urban sprawl on carbon emissions was gradually increasing, especially in the middle reaches. Consequently, the effects of urban sprawl on carbon emissions showed distinct spatiotemporal heterogeneity, varying in impact intensity in both the temporal and spatial dimensions. Formulating differentiated spatial development plans tailored to urban realities may prevent disorderly urban sprawl and facilitate both high-quality urban development and the achievement of carbon reduction goals in the Yellow River Basin.

The origin and spread of agriculture in the Holocene prompted humans to transition from hunting and gathering to the farming era. The changes in the Earth's surface cover caused by human activities during the early development of agriculture reveal the deep roots of changes in the Earth system over thousands of years, which is of great significance to the study of long-term changes in climate systems and ecosystems. Animal and plant archaeological research can reflect the situation of ancestors using and changing the environment to obtain food, providing favorable conditions for reconstructing early land use and land cover changes. This study used agricultural and archaeological research to explore the grain production, grain consumption, and population size of the ancestors in the middle Holocene, and reconstructed the cropland area and cropland spatial distribution pattern of the southeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in three periods: 6000-4500 a BP, 4500-3700 a BP, and 3700-2300 a BP. The results show that: 1) The grain production and grain consumption of the ancestors in the middle Holocene showed an upward trend with the development of agriculture and the diversification of crop structure. The average annual grain production was 193, 297, and 450 kg/hm², respectively, and the per capita annual consumption of grain was 220, 250, and 270 kg, respectively. 2) The population size in the middle Holocene continued to increase, at 16222, 24160, and 35885, respectively, which promoted the development of agriculture. 3) Under the pressure of increasing population, the cropland area in the middle Holocene continued to increase, reaching 36982, 40620, and 42289 hm² respectively. 4) The cropland was distributed in narrow strips along the rivers, and the cropland grid reclamation rate was low, mainly at 0-20%. In 6000-4500 a BP and 4500-3700 a BP, the highest reclamation rate of cropland grids was 61.3% and 69%, respectively, and in 3700-2300 a BP, the highest reclamation rate reached 92.7%, and 3.3% of the cropland grids had a reclamation rate of more than 30%.