Regional development disparity is an eternal research topic of economic geography. Taking the Yangtze River Delta, a high-quality integrated development demonstration area, as the research object, this study examined the dynamic change of regional economic development disparities during the expansion of the spatial scope of Yangtze River Delta integration, and further used the difference-in-differences method, mediation effect model, and spatial Durbin model to empirically test the impact of the implementation of the Yangtze River Delta integration policy on regional economic development disparities and the mechanism of impact. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) The expansion of the spatial scope of Yangtze River Delta integration has caused an increase in the economic development disparity within the region. However, with the continuous promotion of Yangtze River Delta integration, the imbalance of economic development within the region has been effectively improved, and it showed a long-term trend of narrowing. 2) From the perspective of geographic locations, the Yangtze River Delta integration policy has played an important role in promoting the development of remote and economically weak areas within the planning scope. 3) From the regional boundary perspective, the Yangtze River Delta integration policy has had a significant border effect, reducing the strategic and transportation positions of cities with similar geographic locations around the Yangtze River Delta that are not within the scope of the integration plan, and having a negative impact on their development. 4) Mechanism analysis showed that the implementation of the Yangtze River Delta integration policy has narrowed the regional economic development disparity mainly by transaction cost effect, technology spillover effect, and industrial optimization effect. Under the background of building a national high-quality development model area and a world-class urban agglomeration, this study provides a theoretical support and empirical evidence for further improving the framework of Yangtze River Delta integration, and exploring replicable regional high-quality integrated development models.

Urban shrinkage effect exists simultaneously as the cause and result of urban shrinkage, which is the premise and basis for revealing the context and mechanism of the formation of shrinking cities and scientifically formulating response strategies. In view of the lack of a systematic conceptual cognition and theoretical analysis framework for urban shrinkage effect in the current academic circle, this study examined the conceptual connotation of urban shrinkage effect and its Chinese logic, and the effect of regional urban shrinkage in Northeast China. The research pointed out that: 1) Urban shrinkage effect refers to the feedback of changes in regional relationship, urban area internal operation efficiency, and urban resident happiness index brought about by the "re-location" of relevant development factors such as urban population, capital, and enterprises under the action of spatial correlation and coupling between cities and regions, surrounding cities, and rural areas in the specific context of urban shrinkage. It has the characteristics of comprehensive and multi-dimensional representation, the distinction between positive and negative effects of scale and dimension, path continuity, and contextual relevance of development. According to the relevant subjects, the research content of urban shrinkage effect can be divided into three dimensions: Regional relationship, urban area internal operation efficiency, and urban resident happiness index. In the empirical analysis, it is appropriate to use the matching method, difference-in-differences method, panel effect model, and comparative induction method for evaluation. 2) The research on urban shrinkage effect in the context of China should emphasize using multi-source data, new technical means, and new concepts to evaluate the urban shrinkage effect in China, analyzing and clarifying the Chinese logic generated by urban shrinkage effect, taking regional overall development as the governance goal in response to the contraction effect, and designing a people-oriented differentiation path as the means to respond to the contraction effect. 3) The urban shrinkage effect of regional urban shrinkage in Northeast China has both positive and negative attributes, but the overall disadvantages far outweigh the advantages, and it is unreasonable to simply regard urban shrinkage as a phenomenon of population outflow and only emphasize the unilateral urban shrinkage effect. The proposition that shrinkage promotes the large-scale, mechanized, and intensive development of agriculture in Northeast China lacks sufficient basis and support at present. In fact, urban shrinkage effect restrains the radiation driving effect of the city on the countryside to some extent and promotes the development of the urban-rural relationship to a low level of equilibrium. The research results are an expansion of the existing research on urban shrinkage and its sinicization, which may provide a strong support for the governance of China's shrinking cities and the revitalization of Northeast China.

Exploring the functional transformation mechanism of rural residential land can further deepen the research on rural land use. In order to explore the change of residential land function in different types of villages, this study constructed a theoretical analysis framework of rural residential land functional transformation based on an examination of the concept, and carried out an empirical analysis by using the grounded theory method based on two typical village cases in Yinan County, Shandong Province. The results show that: The change of the leading function of rural residential land is closely related to the rise and fall of villages and the direction of development. On the basis of stabilizing the social security function of rural residential land, the village collectives of priority development villages promote the orderly upgrading and renovation on the basis of the original scale by formulating scientific development directions, which promotes the continuous upgrading of the living function of rural residential land and the transformation to the multi-compound direction dominated by cultural and ecological functions. In villages of relocation and withdrawal, the problem of vacant and abandoned residential land is relatively serious due to the loss of production factors. The local governments promote the transformation of idle rural residential land to non-agricultural production use and ecological compound function through local relocation, banning the investment of construction factors, and development planning of rural residential land. The communication and configuration of elements inside and outside the villages provide driving forces for the functional transformation of the residential land, and promote the transformation of the function of rural residential land from residential security only to a multi-compound direction. Therefore, in the future, according to the general situation of factor allocation in different types of villages, the management and use standard of residential land should be formulated according to local conditions, and village planning and efficient use of residential land should be combined to realize the coordinated transformation and development of the function of rural residential land with the allocation of factors such as population and rural industry.

Finding new theoretical perspectives to effectively identify and analyze the spatial differentiation characteristics and patterns of rural settlements can provide basic support for planning the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements and the path of revitalization and development of rural areas. Taking 442 rural settlement units in Shanxian County, Southwest Shandong as the research object, this study constructed an analytical framework of morphological differentiation-functional differentiation-interactive relationship. By developing a quantitative evaluation method of spatial morphology and functions adapted to the third national land survey data, the spatial differentiation characteristics of rural settlements in the county were systematically identified. Then, the interaction between spatial morphology and functions of rural settlements was analyzed through Spearman's rho and bivariate spatial autocorrelation methods. The results show that: 1) The rural settlements in Shanxian County are characterized by the spatial pattern of "dispersion and homogeneity", which is a typical feature of traditional plain agricultural areas. In terms of distribution, the rural settlements show the layout characteristics of "scattered villages are widely distributed, interspersed with agglomerated villages"; In terms of scale, the rural settlements show two spatial structure modes: the circular zonal type with the towns as the center and the point-axis type along the main traffic lines; In terms of shape, most rural settlements have regular boundaries, and irregular settlements are oriented by roads and micro topography. 2) The level of living function of rural settlement units in Shanxian County shows circular zonal distribution around the city and towns; The level of production function shows a point-axis distribution characteristic along the main traffic lines; The settlement units with better ecological function have higher proximity to surface water bodies; The distribution of settlement units with better comprehensive functions has obvious spatial preference toward centers and roads, and has negative correlation with ecological functions. 3) The three-dimensional morphology and functions are mainly collaborative, and the trade-off relationship is mainly between the three-dimensional morphology and ecological function. The coordination/trade-off between scale and multiple functions is the most prominent. The morphology-function coordination/trade-off has a function-oriented spatial differentiation rule. The spatial reconstruction and governance of rural settlements in traditional plain agricultural areas need to take function improvement as the core goal, and strengthen the collaborative optimization of morphology and functions.

The periphery of megacities is the frontier area of urban spatial expansion and extension, and it is an important area where the modernization of governance system and governance capacity is urgently needed. Taking Baiyun District of Guangzhou City as an example, this study analyzed the process, characteristics, influencing factors, and driving mechanism of land use change and urban spatial evolution in the district from 1985 to 2020 by using FROM-GLC10 LULC data products, land use transfer matrix, grey correlation analysis, and GIS spatial analysis methods. On this basis, the article discussed the governance path and model of megacity fringe area. The results show that: 1) From 1985 to 2020, the land use change in Baiyun District was significant, and the characteristics of land use change were mainly the rapid growth of construction land and the decrease of cultivated land, forest land, and grassland. 2) During the study period, the construction land change in Baiyun District experienced four stages: Sudden rapid expansion, high-speed and stable expansion, slowing expansion, and low-speed expansion. The expansion of construction land was significantly affected by the radiation of the central urban area, showing a spatial trend of expansion from south to north. 3) The spatial evolution of the megacity fringe area is affected by natural factors, geographical location, economic development, factor input, policy system, and other factors, and a variety of factors jointly drive the land use change and spatial evolution of the megacity fringe area. 4) In the future, the governance of the periphery of China's megacities should focus on innovating the concept of governance, improving the content and objectives, innovating the means and models, and improving the system and mechanism, so as to effectively promote the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity, and realize urban-rural co-governance, pluralistic co-governance, overall intelligent governance, and grassroots autonomy. The research results can provide a theoretical reference and practical guidance for urban planning, construction, and modern governance in China in the new era.

Under the background of global economic integration, the establishment of a higher-level balance of economic and ecological systems is of great significance for regional coordinated and sustainable development. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution process and coupling and coordination degree of population, industry, and resource agents of the economic-ecological system of Hainan Island from the perspective of system theory in 2000-2022, and examined the roles of the economic agents and the socioeconomic environment factors, such as openness, stability, and continuity, and the mechanism of impact, through the panel data regression model. The results show that: 1) In the past 23 years, the coupled and coordinated development of the economic and ecological systems on the Hainan Island has experienced three cyclical fluctuations, and the spatial pattern has been transformed from the original single core to the multi-core distribution of Haikou, Sanya, and Danzhou, forming a layout characterized by high values at the periphery and low values in the central area. 2) Among the socioeconomic environment factors, continuity had a stronger impact than stability, welfare of the residents, capital investment, and educational input promoted the coupled and coordinated development of the economic and ecological systems, while the openness factor has not yet produced a significant effect. 3) The economic-ecological system of Hainan Island has formed a multifaceted driving mechanism and integration. Subjects' internal drive, environmental forces, and policy drivers are the power sources of the system operation, and in the multiple and complex relationships, there is an urgent need for a strong integration mechanism to regulate and control, and to improve the system's dynamic adaptation and self-calibrating and balancing ability. 4) The establishment of a new equilibrium of the system in the construction of the free trade port can be achieved by strengthening policy regulation and institutional security, expanding societal production, improving public services, and optimizing the industrial structure in order to build up the system's own regulation and coping capacity.

The construction of a science and technology talent pool is a crucial guarantee for the implementation of China's talent-driven strategy for the new era and a robust support for propelling the Chinese style modernization and achieving high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening. This study constructed a theoretical analysis framework for the mobility of recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars based on the Curriculum Vitae information of 1832 recipients from 2010 to 2019. Social network analysis and the negative binomial regression model were used to examine the structural characteristics of the mobility network of these outstanding young talents and driving factors. The findings reveal that: 1) Topologically, the learning phase network primarily consists of domestic intercity mobility with a dual-core network topology centered around Beijing and Shanghai. In contrast, the working phase network is dominated by mobility between domestic and international cities, presenting a dual-core network topology with a notable talent reflow effect characterized by movement from abroad to first-tier Chinese cities. 2) The core-periphery characteristics are more pronounced during the working phase than the learning phase, with evident transitions between strong semi-peripheral cities, weak semi-peripheral cities, and peripheral cities. Geospatially, the domestic mobility network of outstanding young talents displays a hub-and-spoke structure centered on Beijing, without a clear "peacock flying southeast" migration pattern. 3) The regression results of city attribute factors indicate that the drivers of talent migration vary across different stages, with educational resources and economic levels being key factors that influence talent mobility. 4) Empirical results for the proximity factors show that during the Master's-Ph.D. phase, cultural and social proximities have a significant positive impact on talent mobility. During the pre-Distinguished Young Scholar appointment-Distinguished Young Scholar appointment phase, institutional and social proximities significantly influence talent mobility. During the Distinguished Young Scholar appointment-current work phase, geographical proximity has a significant negative impact on talent mobility.

There exists a significant link between the built environment and rail transit ridership. However, the existing studies are mainly devoted to investigating the impact of the built environment on ridership at rail transit stations, and there are fewer analyses on the impact of network ridership. Unlike station ridership, the vectoral nature of network ridership is subject to the dual effects of the built environment at the origin and destination. In this study, we constructed a built environment indicator system with "5D+N" dimensions based on multi-source geospatial data, and used the LightGBM-SHAP model to analyze the impact of the built environment of the origin and destination stations on network ridership during peak hours from three aspects: the contribution of different characteristics, univariate nonlinear relationship, and bivariate interaction effect. The case study of Tianjin showed that: 1) The combined contribution of the top five built environment factors to the importance of network ridership in morning peak reached 13.22, among which the distance of the destination from the city center contributed the most, and the contribution of the built environment of the destination (20.86) was greater than the contribution of the built environment of the starting point (18.30). 2) The nonlinear relationship between built environment factors and morning peak network ridership varied significantly, with nonlinear positive correlation, nonlinear negative correlation, and so on, and the threshold effect also existed in a variety of cases, such as single-end threshold and multi-segment threshold. 3) For morning peak network ridership, origin or destination bus stop density significantly interacts with destination betweenness centrality, respectively, with bus stop density dominating the interaction effect. The results of the study provide a precise and effective strategy to guide the renewal of the built environment of the station area and to enhance the effectiveness of rail transit ridership.

Climate change increases the intensity, frequency, and duration of heatwave events that present a threat to human health. Fine-scale heat vulnerability assessment of megacities through a geographical perspective has important guiding significance for high-temperature disaster risk prevention and mitigation. This study aimed to explore the spatial differentiation pattern and influencing factors of heat vulnerability in the central urban area of Guangzhou City. First, we established a model of heat vulnerability based on four components including exposure, social sensitivity, physical sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, and adopted 14 indicators to assess population heat vulnerability at the community level. Second, we used equal weight approach (EWA), entropy weight method (EWM), and principal component analysis (PCA) to calculate heat vulnerability respectively, and validated three assessment results using heat-related mortality. Then based on the specific assessment of heat vulnerability that has the strongest correlation with heat-related mortality, we explored the spatial differentiation pattern of heat vulnerability in Guangzhou City. An obstacle degree model was furthered employed to explore the driving factors of heat vulnerability. Our findings indicate that heat vulnerability shows significant spatial agglomeration. The areas with high heat vulnerability are mainly distributed along the expansion direction of the urban built-up area. Communities within the inner ring road have extremely high heat vulnerability, characterized by high exposure, high social sensitivity, high physical sensitivity, and high adaptive capacity. Communities with high heat vulnerability should pay particular attention to the elderly population, especially the elderly with poor health and living alone. Meanwhile, decades-old residential communities and communities at risk of high heat exposure should also make multi-pronged heat action plans to reduce heat-related mortality and morbidity. This study enriches the assessment framework of heat vulnerability for risk identification, driving factor exploration, and developing strategies for the prevention and mitigation of heatwave disasters for urban communities.

Fine-grained wave data are the basis for studying the coral distribution and topography of islands and reefs. Currently, there is a lack of long time series fine wave simulations carried out in the interior of coral reefs and on smaller scales, which is insufficient to obtain the fine wave characteristics of the island and reef areas. This research took Yongle Atoll of Xisha Islands in the South China Sea as the study area, and carried out a high-resolution refined island wave simulation of Yongle Atoll from 2017 to 2021 based on the self-nested wave simulation of the SWAN model and resolution-16 m topographic data. The study analyzed the fine spatial distribution characteristics of the effective wave heights, wave directions, and the average wave energy in the study area based on geomorphic units orientations and islands and reefs. The results show that the correlation coefficient between modeled and measured wave data was 0.94, and P < 0.05. The five-year average significant wave heights and energy of Yongle Atoll showed a "U"-shape through the months, and the average wave frequency in the NE direction was 20%. There were spatial differences in the wave characteristics of different geomorphic unites, and the maximum wave height and maximum energy were the highest in deep lagoons and at reef slopes. The average wave heights and energy of the deep lagoon, point reef, and the reef slope were higher than those of the shallow lagoon and the reef flat. Among the eight directions, average energy was the highest in the south, followed by the southwest. Among the different islands and reefs, the southern reef had the highest average energy. The attenuation of energy from the reef slope to the reef flat was higher than 30% in all directions, and the attenuation in the southern part of the reef was up to 72.7%. This study provides methods and a theoretical support for the exploration of coral distribution patterns, coral reef protection and restoration, and coastal engineering construction.

Given the increasing interconnection between tourism and political geography, the South China Sea has emerged as a crucial arena for neighboring countries to project their geopolitical influence through tourism activities. Therefore, it is of immense practical, theoretical, and policy significance to investigate maritime border tourism as the encounter process of daily political practices. This study employed tourism encounter as a theoretical framework, and used field investigation, in-depth interviews, and text analysis to delve into the intricate dynamics at play. Specifically, it explored how the macro-power infiltration, propelled by government agencies, resonates with the micro-level participation of individuals in Xisha tourism. It also investigated how the sovereign practices are realized within the border space, shedding light on the production of space-power relations in marine border tourism. The findings highlight that in Xisha tourism, the state exercises political logic to guide the design of the spatial system, effectively communicating geopolitical discourse to tourists. This is accomplished through the dual strategies of human-human interaction encounters and human-landscape perceptual encounters, which incorporate social and cultural elements into tourism activities. Drawing upon pre-existing border geographic imaginations associated with Xisha sentiments, physical participation, interaction, and perception during tourism, and the continuation of emotions post tourism, tourists construct a collective sense of psychological ownership tied to the idea of "sovereignty belongs to us" and a reimagined border concept. This grassroots approach facilitates the bottom-up promotion of the sovereign practices of Xisha. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of "tourist encounter", "sovereign practices", and other related concepts in the study of tourism geopolitics. Moreover, it offers diverse perspectives for the study of the South China Sea issue, providing valuable insights into this multifaceted matter.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the phenomenon of global regional inequality has been continuously exacerbated, posing severe challenges to regional sustainable development. Regional inequality is a classic proposition in economic geography, and its concepts and research frameworks are constantly being updated. Solving the problem of regional development inequality is an important prerequisite for promoting high-quality regional development. However, existing research lacks systematic understanding of regional inequality. Based on this situation, this article reviewed the development process and perspective shift of international research on regional inequality, and outlined the prospects for the direction of regional inequality research through comparative analysis of international trends and situations in China. The research findings are as follows: 1) Regional inequality research has gone through four stages: the early emerging stage (before the end of the 19th century), the single perspective stage (from the early 20th century to the mid-20th century), the dual perspective stage (from the mid-20th century to the end of the 20th century), and the dynamic perspective stage (since the 21st century). The research perspective has shifted from convergence and divergence to dynamic openness. 2) With the increasing integration of regions into the global system, regional inequality research has shifted from economic inequality to multidimensional inequality, from static equilibrium to exogenous shocks, and from localization to a "global-local" interactive perspective, with continuously expanding breadth and depth of research. 3) The current trend of paradigm shift in regional inequality research is reflected in the improvement of measurement methods, integration with the modern economic geography schools, and attention to scale effects. 4) Future research on regional inequality urgently needs to integrate and draw on theories and methods from multiple disciplines, explore issues such as the synergistic effects of internal and external factors on regional inequality, dynamic evolutionary trends and cyclical effects, as well as interactions of multiple scales of power and mechanisms of feedback among diverse entities.

Land is the spatial foundation and material carrier of urban and rural development, and rural land use optimization has become an important breakthrough point in solving rural land use problems and promoting rural revitalization. In the middle and late stages of urbanization, urban and rural governance has entered the "deep water zone", and rural land use optimization needs to be supported by systematic research. In this study, we built a theoretical cognition and mechanism analysis framework of "element-structure-function" of rural territorial system from the perspective of systems theory, comprehensively examined the rural land use problems, and put forward the optimization paths of rural land use considering the types of problems. The results show that: 1) Rural territorial system consists of kernel elements such as water, soil, air, life, rocks and minerals, and exogenous elements such as capital, technology, information and data, as well as dual-attribute elements such as human beings and infrastructure, etc. The different quantities and qualities of the elements form the structure of the rural territorial system. Among it, the passive structure and the motivational structure influence and shape each other, and assume the two-way conduction role of regulating the rural elements, optimising the rural structure and enhancing the rural functions. 2) Based on the theory of rural territorial system, the current land use problems include passive structure constraints that limit the demand for land requirements in terms of the structure of resources and the environment, motivational structure imbalance that limits the efficiency and quality of land use due to the mismatch between the policy and institutional system in the social structure and the demand for the development of the economic structure at a higher level, and the comprehensive problem of the lack of coordination between the objective supportive conditions of the passive structure and the socioeconomic condition that affects the sustainable land use. 3) The current land use optimization strategies include moderate land-scale operation by means of land transfer and remediation, spatial optimization and management improvement, and land ecological value excavation. This study provides a reference for solving rural land use problems, enhancing the efficiency of rural land use, and promoting rural transformation and revitalization.

The spiral decline of rural areas has become a common challenge for global rural development, and the key to rural revitalization lies in the choice of rural development models. This study systematically reviewed the succession process of rural development models, and we argue that the rural neo-endogenous development model is rooted in the local and external places, which can achieve "upper and lower linkage, internal and external symbiosis", more in line with the connotation of rural development in the new era. The model shows strong comprehensiveness and integrity, and provides a new perspective for the current rural development research. Based on the perspective of structural duality, we constructed an empirical framework of rural neo-endogenous development model, and summarized the main empirical research on the rural neo-endogenous development model at the agent and network levels. We believe that the existing research still cannot solve the operational problems of specific practical and theoretical propositions, and lacks the guidance of systematic action framework. Therefore, in the future, scholars can carry out action framework and evaluation research of rural neo-endogenous development from a multidisciplinary perspective, and explore the differentiated transformation path and mechanism of rural neo-endogenous development, so as to better guide rural geographers to promote rural neo-endogenous development and realize rural revitalization.

In recent years, as the urban-rural gap in China continued to narrow, achieving urban-rural integration has gradually emerged as a prominent topic within the field of human geography. However, existing research in this area still lacks sufficient attention towards the key actors involved in urban-rural integration. Meanwhile, the academic and political circles in Japan proposed the concept of "return to rural living", emphasizing human subjectivity and advocating for the diversification of urban-rural development based on the premise of ruralization of urban areas. This approach aims to construct a novel urban-rural relationship. This study began by providing an overview of the background and conceptual connotations of returning to rural living. From the actors' perspective, this article examined the transformation of multi-actors in Japan's returning to rural living movement by integrating relevant policies, historical context, significant events, and public opinions. It further outlined the progression from permanent population→migrant population→exchange population→related population, demonstrating the continuous expansion of social groups that are involved in urban and rural integration development in Japan. Additionally, the concept of returning to rural living adheres to a development perspective that does not solely prioritize economic growth but places importance on the realization of social subject values, which provides valuable insights for the integrated development of urban and rural areas in China.