The world is undergoing unprecedented changes that have not been seen in a century, with an era of uncertainty and precarity beginning to emerge. Over the past 20 years, the concept of precarity has rapidly become a topic of great interest in Western human geography. This article first explained the basic connotations of precarity in terms of labor conditions, ontological experience, and class categories based on the classic literature of Western social science. It then reviewed the research trajectory of precarity in Western human geography and found that the geographical research on precarity exhibits a significant critical thinking approach. It focuses on the impact of structured environments of precarity on individuals and their responses within such environments, forming two main research threads: one is the study of precarity in labor conditions under specific historical circumstances, focusing on the structural mechanisms of precarious employment and the agency of the precariat; the other is the study of precarity as an ontological experience of human life, focusing on the impact of precarity caused by geopolitics and the politics of everyday urban life on residents and the political consequences that arise. Finally, the article suggests that research on precarity in the Chinese context can be carried out by integrating the economic situations of emerging economies, the new normal of the economy, flexible capital accumulation, and international politics. This article aimed to promote the field of human geography in China to extend into the realm of precarity, preparing for research in understanding social risks brought about by precarity and achieving long-term stable development of the social economic system.

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.

China has fully entered a stage of moderate aging, and the elderly migration population has become a focal group in contemporary urban and rural governance. Supported by the data of interprovincial migration flows of China's elderly population from 2000 to 2020, we used social network analysis and the eigenvector spatial filtering Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimation (ESF PPML) gravity model to explore the spatial-temporal variability of influencing factors of interprovincial elderly migration in China. The following conclusions were drawn: 1) From 2000 to 2020, the scale of China's interprovincial elderly migration population continued to grow, and the main destinations remained basically stable. 2) The migration pattern of the elderly population remained stable but also with some changes: Generally, a large number of elderly people migrated from the northeastern, central, southwestern, and northwestern regions to the northern, eastern, and southern regions; however, from 2015 to 2020, there was a reversal trend in the outflow of elderly people from the southwestern and northwestern regions. In addition, the density of the elderly migration network first decreased and then increased, and the source areas became increasingly dispersed while the destination areas remained concentrated. The main migration flows occurred more frequently between adjacent provinces over time. 3) The ESF PPML model indicated that traditional gravity factors (population size, geographical distance), living costs, natural environment factors, health service facilities, resource depletion level, and social network factors jointly drove the interprovincial elderly migration pattern between 2000 and 2020. 4) Over the 20-year period, the hindering effect of living costs on interprovincial elderly migration showed a weakening trend, while the promoting effect of social network factors on elderly migrants had gradually increased. The impact of health service facilities on the elderly migrants was relatively weak and fluctuated, while natural environment amenity only significantly affected the scale of out-migration of the elderly population. The findings of this study provide a scientific and empirical foundation for actively addressing population aging and promoting high-quality population development in the new era.

Under the background of rapid urbanization and living heritage tourism development, traditional ethnic minority villages, as a unique geographical unit that nurtures ethnic regional cultures, have become increasingly hollowed out, showing multi-dimensional spatial change with both common and individual characteristics. Based on this phenomenon, this study took Pingtan Village of the Xiangxi Dong ethnic community in Hunan Province as an example, and applied the framework of quantitative assessment of hollowing out status quo-analysis of spatial variation of hollowing out-exploration of hollowing out formation mechanism by using index construction, qualitative research, and the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework, to explore the status quo, spatial variation characteristics, and formation mechanism of hollowing out in Pingtan Village. The study found that: 1) From the quantitative results, the external appearance of traditional buildings in the village is still well preserved, but population hollowing out and building hollowing out are significant, and the degree of hollowing out of the new village, commercial streets, and traditional village shows the characteristics of microscopic geographic differentiation. 2) In terms of the specific features of hollowing out, residents' non-farming employment and conservative mobility have increased, the architectural space shows fragmentation of the spatial texture at the macro level and low-energy development of residential buildings at the micro level, and the cultural space faces the challenges of the loss of local representation and inheritance. 3) With regard to the hollowing formation mechanism, the hollowing out of Pingtan Village is a complex process of alienation of the village territorial spatial system driven by the macro social environment and the micro confined space, as well as by the combination of exogenous and endogenous subjects. The study aimed to explore the general patterns of the characteristics and formation mechanism of the hollowing out of traditional ethnic minority villages, to provide a scientific basis for the effective implementation of urban-rural integration and rural revitalization in the same types of micro territorial space, and to promote the survival of traditional ethnic minority villages in a living state.

In view of the fact that there is no systematic summary of recent studies on the history of geography in China except in some selected fields, based on a literature review and the change of thoughts in research on the history of science, this study examined the major progress of recent research on the history of geography and related works in China, and discussed the issues that deserve further attention in the future. The literature review found that: 1) The history of geography is an independent academic field in Chinese geography, characterized by fruitful research results, wide field coverage, and stable research groups. 2) The system of the field has been tentatively constructed, forming a research system that covers disciplinary history, intellectual history, social history, and research on compiling history, which largely corresponds to the research field of the history of science. 3) There are many thoughts in the study of the history of geography, which largely aligns with the main trends of contemporary history of science. However, due to insufficient reference to the new trends in the history of science such as the social history of knowledge, contextualism, conceptual history, and reading history, there are only few research achievements under the recent trends of geographical thoughts. 4) The spatial scope, subfields, and subjects of the research objects are different, mainly reflected in the focus on the study of the history of Chinese geography, and studies on the history of cartography and modern historical geography in China, famous geographical research institutions, societies, and scholars in contemporary China have made fruitful achievements. In contrast, the corresponding research on other spatial scopes, sub-areas, and subjects is weaker. 5) Specialized research on the history of Chinese geography has focused on the ancient period, with a gradual emergence of the modern period, and modern and contemporary research is mainly a review of progress and a synthesis of the literature. The main issues worthy of attention in future research include: 1) Focusing on weak areas of research, and presenting a more comprehensive development trajectory of Chinese geography, especially the disciplinary history in the last hundred years. 2) Strengthening the reference to the trends of the social history of knowledge, contextualism, conceptual history, and reading history, and paying more attention to research on the history of geography under modern and contemporary geographical thoughts. 3) Paying attention to the interpretation of the social value of the history of modern and contemporary Chinese geography and expanding the societal cognition of geography. 4) Emphasizing dialogue with international research and enhancing the international discourse of research on the history of Chinese geography.

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.

Palaeoflood events were the response of river systems to regional climatic variability. Through extensive and detailed field investigations in the Lihe River Basin, a TZC profile containing typical palaeoflood sediments was found at the riverbank platform in the middle reaches of the river, and the profile was observed, measured, stratified, and sampled. The macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of sediments (magnetic susceptibility, grain-size composition, and end-members) indicate that the three groups of palaeoflood sediments are typical overbank flood deposits (OFD) in the plain area, and record three phases of palaeoflood events. The results of sample OSL datings and Bacon age-depth model simulations reveal that the three palaeoflood events occurred in the Late Pleistocene 12.0-11.6 kaBP, Middle Holocene 4.2-3.8 kaBP, and Late Holocene 1.8-1.5 kaBP, respectively. These periods correspond to global climate transitions or abrupt climate events, during which the monsoon climate changed abnormally, its variability increased, and both flood and drought events occurred. In the same periods, there were also large climate variability and frequent extreme climate events in the Lihe River Basin, which caused sudden heavy rainfall and led to flood disasters in the basin. This study is of great significance for flood prediction, flood disaster reduction in the Lihe River Basin and even the Huaihe River Basin, as well as for revealing the response pattern of regional river hydrology to global change.

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.

Nepal is an important partner of China in building the Belt and Road in South Asia. In-depth analysis of the evolution of Nepal's foreign trade pattern and its driving factors is of great significance, not only for strengthening Sino-Nepalese cooperation and building the China-Nepal-India Economic Corridor, but also for promoting the construction of the Belt and Road. Based on Nepal's foreign trade data from 2009 to 2022, this study analyzed Nepal's trade pattern change and its driving factors using GIS spatial analysis and the panel regression model. The results are as follows: 1) From 2001 to 2022, the scale of Nepal's foreign trade was fluctuating and rising, which can be divided into three stages: slowly growing, recovering and developing, and fluctuating and developing. 2) From 2009 to 2022, Nepal's import commodity structure was relatively balanced and stable, dominated by resource-intensive and technology-intensive products. The export commodity structure was relatively homogeneous, dominated by resource-intensive primary products. 3) With regard to the spatial and temporal patterns, Nepal's foreign trade was highly dependent on its neighbor India. Its trading partners were more concentrated and mainly distributed in the neighboring countries and the world's major trading countries. The import pattern changed from peripheral agglomeration to north-south equilibrium, and the export pattern changed from single-core of India to double core of India-the United States. 4) As for the main trade flows, Nepal-India represented the core trade flow. Its import trade flow from key importing countries showed different focuses, but the commodity structure was relatively stable, and the export trade flow to key exporting countries was always dominated by textile raw materials and products. 5) The change of Nepal's foreign trade pattern was mainly driven by language proximity, organizational proximity, geographical proximity, political tendency proximity, and trade policy proximity, while other influences were driven by economic development, industrialization, and political stability.

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.

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.

Administrative divisions are an important part of the national system of governance, and the related adjustments have become an important tool for optimizing the administrative management system, improving the effectiveness of national governance, and promoting regional spatial reorganization. Among these adjustments, county-to-district conversion, as an important part of China's county-level administrative division adjustment from 1997, has become a hot topic that has attracted much attention in the study of administrative division. Based on existing studies, this article analyzed the change of county (city) abolition and establishment of districts from the aspects of progress, occurrence logic, assessment method, and multiple impacts in a comprehensive manner. We found that the number of counties (cities) converted to districts in China experienced a fluctuating increase and then a rapid decrease, followed by a rapid increase and then a gradual decrease, with an overall M-shaped temporal pattern, and 2000-2002 and 2014-2016 were the two peak periods of conversion. National policies provided the necessary conditions for county-to-district conversion, local demands promoted the implementation of the conversion, and the final adjustment was often the result of the game between multiple actors. The research methods became more diversified, but the relevant basic theories and methodological studies are relatively weak, and there is still a big gap between the status quo and the requirements of governance modernization. The conclusions of the existing studies on the economic and social benefits of county-to-district conversion are inconsistent, while that on the impact of ecological benefits is relatively uniform, that is, the quality of the regional ecological environment has been improved by the county-to-district conversion. In summary, this article argued that in the future there is an urgent need to strengthen the theoretical and methodological research on the setting up of administrative districts, reveal in depth the positive and negative effects of county-to-district conversion on the development of cities and regions, strengthen the analysis of the driving mechanism of county-to-district conversion, and examine the triggering conditions of county-to-district conversion, in order to provide references for the scientific improvement of decision making of local governments as well as the optimization and adjustment of the national policies on county-to-district conversion.

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.

The accurate simulation of ice and snow melt runoff is crucial for flood disaster warning and water resource optimization management in inland river basins. The long short-term memory (LSTM) deep learning model can be effectively used in the field of hydrological prediction. However, The LSTM model frequently falls short in fully harnessing the spatial characteristics of meteorological elements. In this study, the headwaters of the Yarkant River were taken as the research area. The spatial characteristics of air temperature were extracted using the spatial moments of catchment (SMC) method. The long time series process rule was learned using LSTM, and a daily runoff prediction model called SMC-LSTM was developed. This model integrates the spatial and temporal characteristics of air temperature. The strengths and limitations of the improved LSTM model in predicting runoff from ice and snow melt recharge type rivers were evaluated by comparing its results with both the LSTM model and the hydrological model—the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT). The results indicate that the Nash efficiency coefficient of the SMC-LSTM runoff model is approximately 20% higher than that achieved by SWAT's daily scale hydrological model. Moreover, during forecast periods ranging from 1-7 days, the SMC-LSTM runoff prediction model outperforms the LSTM model by 5%-15% in terms of Nash efficiency coefficient, while also exhibiting improved peak flow predictions by 2%-22%. Notably, these advantages become more pronounced when forecasting runoff for shorter periods. Overall, incorporating SMC enhances the accuracy of runoff prediction within an LSTM framework.

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.

For a long time, confined by the dualistic thinking of nature versus society, water has been regarded as a resource with solely natural attributes, neglecting the complex and dynamic interrelationship between water and society, especially that the power-political relationships embedded in water have not yet been clarified. Based on the political ecology approach, this research took Jianggen Village in Foshan City—known as the "confluence of three rivers and the source of the bay area"—as a case study area, and adopted qualitative research methods to demonstrate the process and mechanism of dynamic changes of rural area-water relationship from the perspective of hydrosocial territory. The findings are as follows: 1) Water is not only necessary for rural residents' production and daily life but also political water that transcends the scale of village, as well as ecological and tourism water that coordinates protection and development. 2) The dynamic evolution of the rural area-water relationship primarily follows a logic of rural residents' proactive domainization under the cohesion of beliefs, passive de-territorialization led by the government, and "passive autonomy" re-territorialization driven jointly by the government and capital. 3) The evolution of the rural area-water relationship is essentially a transformation of the political, economic, and social relations carried by the water, resulting from the interaction between subjects, spaces, power, and resources. The study analyzed the territorialization strategies of different subjects in the process of urban-embedded village water governance, which enriches the research context of hydrosocial territory. It is also conducive to promoting more equitable and reasonable water governance and water compensation schemes.

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.

A scientific understanding of the spatial pattern change and formation mechanisms of Africa's territorial functions is crucial for fundamental research on Africa's land resources. It also aligns with China's Going Global strategy and supports the development of a China-Africa community with a shared future. Using China's territorial dominant functions of urbanization, food security, and ecological security as spatial reference benchmarks, this study classified Africa's territorial space into three major functional areas: urban-rural construction, agricultural production, and ecological protection. By applying spatiotemporal cubes, spatial transformation intensity models, and interpretable machine learning, this research analyzed the spatial evolution characteristics and regional disparities of Africa's territorial functions from 2002 to 2022. Furthermore, the study examined the mechanisms behind these changes by exploring the importance and interaction strengths of key driving factors. The results indicate that: 1) Over the study period, approximately 3.97% of Africa's territorial functional spaces had undergone structural transformation. Urban-rural construction space had expanded significantly by 9.71%, while the per capita scale of construction land had decreased by 33.78%, highlighting an increasing imbalance between population and available land. Agricultural production space had shown a fluctuating decline, with a distinct zone of drastic change forming along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, while the internal structure of ecological protection space had significantly changed, albeit in an optimizing trend overall. 2) A clear high-dynamic transformation zone had emerged between 5°N and 15°N, where the dynamic mutual transformation between agricultural production and ecological protection spaces was most pronounced. Despite ongoing desert greening efforts, significant land degradation persisted, leading to the expansion-related structural transformations of urban-rural construction space being less prominent on a continental scale. 3) Socioeconomic development and population growth had limited effects on the structural changes of Africa's territorial functional spaces at a continental scale. Instead, variations in hydrological conditions such as atmospheric vapor pressure, temperature, and precipitation, as well as geographical factors like latitude and topographic relief, played a decisive role. Africa's territorial functional space patterns are determined by spatial transformation processes with varying scales, intensities, and driving mechanisms. Future Chinese investments and spatial development strategies in Africa must not only take into account Africa's own unique spatial evolution processes and the underlying patterns that drive these transformations, but also incorporate a thorough understanding of the continent's diverse geographical and socioeconomic contexts. It is crucial to fully leverage the spatial differentiation characteristics, including regional disparities in land use, ecological zones, and development potentials, as well as the emerging trends of its territorial functional spaces. By doing so, these strategies can maximize the comprehensive spatial benefits, fostering sustainable development outcomes that align with both African realities and Chinese strategic objectives in the region, ultimately fostering a mutually beneficial partnership.

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.

Mobile phone signaling data have been widely used in spatiotemporal behavior research, but their potential application in urban planning is limited due to the lack of information on activity purposes. To address this issue, this study proposed a method to infer the purposes of non-work activities from mobile phone signaling data. The method integrates multisource data, and employs a multinomial logit model to explore the relationship between activity purposes and individual attributes, temporal characteristics, and spatial properties of activities. The key innovation lies in the introduction of a location visit frequency variable that reflects long-term behavioral patterns. Empirical results show that incorporating visit frequency significantly improves the model's goodness of fit from 0.265 to 0.442, and increases the overall prediction accuracy from 58.0% to 69.2%. While maintaining interpretability, this method substantially enhances the accuracy of non-work activity identification, providing new insights into residents' spatiotemporal behavior patterns. The findings offer valuable data support and decision-making references for public facility planning, traffic demand forecasting, and business spatial layout optimization.

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.

Festival tourism strengthens the modern construction of ethnic festivals. This article started from the perspective of modernity, examined the translation thinking of actor network theory, and used field research data and spatial analysis to clarify the culture reconstruction processes, characteristics, and logic of Daughter's Festival. The results show that: 1) The cultural reconstruction modes of Daughter's Festival driven by tourism have typical modernity practice characteristics, and they can be divided into three different types: "local" based on their original place, and "remote" and "mobile" based on the city. The culture reconstruction processes and characteristics of different modes present typical heterogeneity. 2) The three types of modernity practices in ethnic festivals have undergone a series of processes such as interest granting, alliance absorption, and action mobilization of modern actant, presenting a cultural reconstruction in terms of material, institutional, and spiritual dimensions. 3) Three different modes of festival respectively show different modernity practice characteristics, including the continuation of life by "eliminating" out of norms, the traditions' return of "following" subjectivity, and individuality presentation of "tending" romanticism. 4) Under the dynamics of modernity, including spatiotemporal separation, disembedding, and knowledge reflection, the physical space, festival rules, festival functions, and meanings of ethnic festivals have been updated and reshaped, and there are differences in the cultural reconstruction logic between rural and urban areas. This research can provide theoretical and empirical references for understanding the relationship between modernity and cultural reconstruction, modernity and locality, and solving problems such as the traditional culture inheritance in the context of modernity.