Strengthening the functional division between cities is crucial for promoting economic development. This study, based on the panel data from 26 urban agglomerations in China from 2008 to 2019, investigated the spatiotemporal characteristics of the functional division of Chinese urban agglomerations and the impact of functional division on economic development efficiency by employing the regional functional division index, DEA model, and Tobit model. The findings are as follows: 1) The overall trend of the functional division level within urban agglomerations in China exhibited a fluctuating upward pattern, gradually forming a spatial functional division pattern where central cities primarily focus on developing productive service industries, while peripheral cities emphasize manufacturing. 2) Significant regional disparities in the functional division level of these urban agglomerations were evident, with economically developed urban agglomerations belonging to the eastern coastal areas exhibiting higher functional division levels, while those with lower levels were predominantly situated in the central and northeastern regions. 3) Empirical results indicate that, on the whole, the positive effect of urban agglomeration functional division outweighed the negative, thereby fostering the economic development efficiency of urban agglomerations. 4) The promoting effect of functional division on large-scale urban agglomerations was more pronounced, while small-scale urban agglomerations may even experience a suppression of economic development efficiency due to the loss of diversified economies and increased transaction costs caused by functional differentiation. 5) Given the significant advantages of central cities in terms of economic development, scale, and industrial structure, the promoting effect of urban agglomeration functional division on the economic development efficiency of central cities was more apparent. The research findings have the potential to deepen the understanding of regional division of labor from the perspective of urban agglomeration, thereby providing references and foundations for the formulation of development policies in urban agglomerations.

Prospectively exploring the role of accessibility on the evolution of industrial space driven by transportation integration will provide a reference for industrial site selection, functional positioning, and the formulation of related policy systems. Taking the producer service industry in the Yangtze River Delta region as an example, this study constructed a spatial accessibility model to measure county accessibility values, and used GIS spatial analysis and spatial Durbin model to measure the intensity of the impact of accessibility on industrial spatial patterns and trends of change, which can reveal the mechanism of accessibility's effect on the spatial evolution of producer services driven by transportation integration. The results indicate that: 1) In 2010 and 2020, the high-value areas and high-growth areas of producer services in all and sub-sectors showed hierarchical distribution and distribution near central cities. 2) Driven by transportation integration, the accessibility level of cities in peripheral areas and core cities in the Yangtze River Delta region has been greatly improved. The accessibility pattern presents a flat core-periphery structure from east to west, which has direct effects and indirect effects on the spatial pattern of the producer service industry. Among the direct effects, comprehensive transportation accessibility has a stronger effect on the spatial pattern of producer services, and high-speed rail accessibility has a significant impact on the development pattern of producer services. In the indirect effects, accessibility has an important impact on the spatial pattern of producer services through factors such as spatial agglomeration, spatial competition, and market potential. 3) The positive and negative effects of spatial agglomeration and spatial competition factors in neighboring counties on the spatial pattern of local producer service industries have increased. Market potential is the dominant factor in the location selection of producer service enterprises. Only when counties and districts have sufficient market potential can high-level accessibility play a key role in attracting producer service enterprises. 4) Accessibility not only has the "centrifugal force" that promotes the proliferation of producer service industry enterprises, but also has the "centripetal force" that promotes the agglomeration of producer service industry enterprises. The two jointly affect the spatial location choices and relocation decisions of enterprises. Thus, faced with the increasing level of regional transportation integration, various regions can plan and locate producer service industrial clusters in transportation hub areas according to local conditions based on the sensitivity of different industries to accessibility and their location preferences.

The increasingly important intercity elements flow and the unique urban administrative system in China lead to regional organizations such as urban agglomerations possessing both networked and hierarchical characteristics. Taking the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as an example, this study comprehensively considered spatial continuity, connectivity, and the evolution of the Yangtze River Delta's integration trend to divide the region into the central layer and the peripheral layer. Using a multi-level exponential random graph model (ML-ERGM), it dissected the coexistence of the network and hierarchical structures in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration network from the perspective of business connections. It also examined the formation mechanism of this pattern from the structural aspects of basic structural effects and complex structural effects, as well as external factors such as urban economic scale, intercity transportation accessibility, intercity physical distance, and administrative boundary effects. The research findings are as follows: 1) The intercity connection network of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration exhibits an overall hierarchical structure and shows a noticeable "capital attraction effect" in terms of intercity connection strength. 2) The intercity connection network in the Yangtze River Delta is significantly driven by structural effects, with specific dynamics including the closure of the central layer, the transmission in the peripheral layer, and interlayer expansion. 3) Urban economic scale is an important influencing factor on the intercity connection network. In addition, a convenient transportation network, close geographical distances, and being located within the same province can all promote intercity business connections, but their effects on different layers of the network are heterogeneous. The results of this research can provide some scientific support for the optimized development of the Yangtze River Delta intercity connection network.

Express logistics is a direct reflection of intercity material flows and an important form of representation of urban connectivity. Taking 63 districts and counties in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as the basic research unit, this study constructed a 63×63 logistics linkage matrix based on logistics network data, and explored the spatial structure characteristics of logistics networks and their influencing factors by using social network analysis, GIS spatial analysis, and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) models. The findings show that: 1) The centrality of the network of districts and counties is basically consistent with the macro pattern of socioeconomic development level and town size, and the imbalance of logistics between districts and counties is notable, with Baiyun District having a prominent logistics function. 2) The overall network has formed a multi-center structure of "three nuclei and two auxiliaries", with Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen as the main cities, supplemented by Foshan and Zhongshan. The clustering and polarization of logistics links are significant, with network connections prioritized in core cities such as Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen. 3) The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can be divided into four cohesive subgroups, which are characterized by a scattered distribution and zonal expansion, a typical core-periphery structure. 4) The formation of logistics networks is mainly influenced by the size of the resident population and GDP, while GDP per capita, per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents, average wages of employed persons, and total retail sales of consumer goods also play an important role. The study is of significance for enriching the theory of urban networks, promoting the coordinated development of logistics, and enhancing the level of logistics services and the comprehensive competitiveness of urban agglomerations.

Overseas agricultural industry parks are an innovative way of China's overseas investment, and land use is one of the core issues in its development. Agricultural industry park A is a national-level overseas industrial park that has passed the assessment of the Ministry of Commerce. Its land use and cooperative planting model have important reference value for other overseas parks and the high-quality development of the Belt and Road region. Using interviews, field research, and evolutionary game methods and taking agricultural industry park A as an example, this study conducted a game analysis on the behavioral motivations of park and local farmers in the process of land acquisition, and explored the optimal land use model of overseas agricultural industry parks. The research found that: 1) Plantations have a large demand for land, high investment cost, long payback cycle, and high risk and sensitivity of investment. 2) Park A has formed a development model of "multiple plantations in one park, cooperative development, and construction of the whole industrial chain". 3) Land acquisition game between the park and the local farmers and the Indonesian government's special policies for plantations combined to form a cooperative planting land use model of 80% self-operated land and 20% jointly-operated land. 4) Land acquisition in Indonesia is difficult and affected by many factors, such as private land ownership, difficulties in determining land ownership, and Western neo-colonialism public opinion. The development experience of park A in the exploration of overseas land investment has certain reference value for the land acquisition and use of Chinese agricultural industry parks in other countries with private ownership of land.

In recent years, a large number of farming households in rural areas of China have engaged in afforestation on cultivated land, which runs counter to the strict requirements of prohibiting non-agricultural use and non-food crop planting of cultivated land, and poses a threat to national food security. The conversion of cultivated land into forestland (CCF) is closely related to the rapid increase of non-agricultural employment of rural labor force and the transformation of cultivated land use patterns in the context of industrialization and urbanization. This study focused on 735 villages in Xintai City, Shandong Province. It examined the subcategories of non-agricultural labor force, including all-household emigration (AE), partial emigration (PE), and living in the village for non-farming employment (LE). Through an analysis of the spatial characteristics of CCF from 2009 to 2019, a multiple linear regression model was constructed to explore the impact of non-agricultural employment of rural labor force on the CCF. The study revealed that: 1) The distribution of CCF in the villages showed a west-to-east gradient, with two agglomerated areas located at the foot of the Baima Mountain and the central plain region in the west. The CCF in villages in the Chaiwen River basin was relatively low. 2) There were obvious spatial differentiations in the impact of the three types of non-agricultural labor force transformation, with AE and PE stimulating the CCF and AE having the greatest impact, followed by PE. The more people moving to villages outside Xintai City, the larger the area of CCF. The LE significantly inhibited CCF, but this inhibition was not significantly related to its non-farming employment location. 3) The CCF was widely observed in both plain and hilly areas, and mostly occupied cultivable lands with poor quality and slope gradients exceeding 2°. 4) The CCF was significantly affected by land acquisition by the government and has a spatial proximity effect, but cultivated land transfer had an inhibitory effect. In addition, the CCF was inhibited by village cadres who considered food production to be very important. The research findings demonstrate the driving factors behind the CCF in rural areas and study proposed feasible solutions for preventing and controlling this phenomenon.

Rewilding is an important means of biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene and under climate change. As the basic spatial carrier of rewilding, the scientific identification and protection of wilderness area is of great significance for improving the efficiency of biodiversity conservation. Taking the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a case area and using 2020 as the time point, this study analyzed the concept and connotation of wilderness, and comprehensively evaluated the suitability of rewilding from the two dimensions of ecological factor suitability and ecosystem naturalness by using the suitability assessment of rewilding, spatial pattern analysis of wilderness area, and morphological analysis. The results show that: 1) The suitability index of rewilding on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ranged from 0.1310 to 0.9332, and the spatial distribution of wilderness areas on the plateau showed obvious regional differentiation, with a spatial pattern of gradually declining from southeast to northwest. 2) The spatial structure of wilderness area was relatively simple, and the morphological characteristics were decentralized and large-scaled. The optimal wilderness area mainly concentrated in the evergreen broad-leaved forest belt of the southern wing of the eastern Himalaya, while the alternative and potential wilderness area gradually spread to the coniferous forest of the eastern mountains of Sichuan and Tibet, the grassland of the Qilian Mountains in eastern Qinghai, and the desert belt of the northern wing of the Kunlun Mountains in the northwest of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. 3) The optimization of wilderness area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is affected by the distribution of important ecological functional zones, especially the source zones of large rivers. Influenced by its natural geographical conditions and human activities, the wilderness area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is currently concentrated in the evergreen broad-leaved forest of the southern wing of the eastern Himalaya and the coniferous forest of the eastern mountains of Sichuan and Tibet in the east, while few and small in the source zones of large rivers in the west. The study results can provide a useful reference for improving the theory of conservation biology, optimizing the biodiversity conservation network, and enhancing the efficiency of biodiversity conservation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Geocooperation between neighboring countries globally facilitates forest conversion and land use change across border zones especially in the tropics. Compared with the disturbance of specific tropical forest types, research on border forest disturbance and its mechanism of response to geocooperation between countries still lags behind. Geoeconomic cooperation and competition among the countries of Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) and their neighbors (including Bangladesh, China, India, and Malaysia) as well as major extraterritorial powers have developed over three decades. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed geoeconomic cooperation and border development. A pressing question is whether the process of border forest disturbance was affected accordingly. With the Sentinel-2 10 m 2017-2021 land cover products, forest disturbance process in the 13 border zones between MSEA and their neighbors from two driving mechanisms of agricultural expansion and built-up area enlargement were examined using GIS spatial analysis, including forest conversion flow and kernel density. The main conclusions are: 1) Forest is the dominant land cover type in all border zones of MSEA and their neighbors, followed by cropland and rangeland, and built-up area is critical in the surrounding areas of border ports. 2) Forest disturbance represented the primary form of border land cover and landscape changes, with the area accounting for nearly 50%. Changes in cropland and rangeland have contributed to agricultural land expansion (90%) and built-up area growth (10%). 3) Agricultural land expansion and built-up area enlargement of port areas were the principal and secondary driving mechanisms of border forest disturbance, respectively. The former contributed to over 70%, while the latter accounted for 3% of the changes, yet showing an increasing trend year by year and notable national differences in direct and indirect effects on border forest disturbance. 4) The COVID-19 pandemic weakened forest disturbance in all border zones, particularly in Cambodia and its border with Laos, exhibiting synchronous and asynchronous effects on the slow-down of forest disturbance on both sides of the borders.

Against the background of the current high degree of urban-rural spatial reconfiguration, the new constructed characteristics of happiness and its urban-rural heterogeneity of humans, which are the actors and ultimate target of development, are of great significance to the balanced and effective enhancement of the dividends of happiness in China's urban-rural development. This research introduced capital as a tool into the study of happiness in human geography, and used data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to design an analytical framework for the construction of happiness by multidimensional capital from the three dimensions of economy, culture, and society. The Probit regression model was used to empirically analyze and explore the constructed characteristics of happiness and its urban-rural differences in the context of high mobility in 2018 from the perspectives of level and structure. The results show that: 1) Chinese residents' happiness was at a high level and relatively balanced between urban and rural areas, and the constructs of urban and rural residents' happiness are diversified under the "level" perspective, that is, the basic effect of economic capital, the transformative effect of cultural capital, and the strong sensitivity of social capital contributed to the enhancement of happiness in urban and rural areas. 2) Having considered the integrity of capital "structure" and ecological niche, the impact of multidimensional capital on the construction of happiness has evolved from one-way enhancement effect to uncertainty and structuralized characteristics, especially the strengthening or missing effects caused by the dominant or deficient local ecological niche, which makes the capital dimension more complex in the construction of happiness. 3) There were significant urban-rural differences in the response strength of residents' happiness to various dimensions of capital, among which social capital showed the strongest sensitivity and the most significant urban-rural differences in the construction of happiness, which indicates that China's current new-type urbanization process should pay attention to the reproduction mechanism and effect of urban-rural social capital. The results of the study are conducive to revealing the modern and local characteristics of the happiness construct in China, and provide a basis for balanced and effective policy formulation to enhance the happiness of Chinese urban and rural residents.

As digital technologies become a new paradigm of urban governance, creating a digitally inclusive space and promoting the empowerment of technologically disadvantaged groups has become a vital issue. Based on the empowerment perspective, this study employed a qualitative research method—semi-structured interviews, and took urban female elderly as the research target, to examine the status quo of digital inclusiveness of space and the empowering effect of digital capital. The study found that the spatial perception towards the city has transformed, with online and offline spaces becoming an intertwined continuum, and the uncertainty and risks associated with online spaces permeating into offline spaces. The push-pull model of digital migration developed in this study theorizes that the inclusive or exclusive nature of digital space guides individuals in making spatial decisions of either "connecting" or "disconnecting". Increased digital capital can contribute to the empowerment of the technologically disadvantaged at five levels, including welfare, access, conscientization, participation, and control. The study found that the increase in urban female elderly's digital capital is concentrated at the welfare and access levels, and remains superficial at the deeper levels of conscientization, participation, and control. The article then proposed a logical and operational framework for making spaces digitally inclusive. The article suggested that the freedom of digital migration should be increased by reducing the barriers between online and offline spaces thereby creating an "inclusive continuum", and by acting on multiple dimensions of informal and formal environments and individual and institutional levels, to take advantage the empowering effects of technologies. This study enriches the empirical scholarship of digital geography and offers insights for improving digital inclusion within urban planning and governance in China.

Alluvial fans are common deposition landforms at the outlets of mountain streams (gullies). Maturely developed and stable alluvial fans are favorable sites for work and daily life in mountainous areas, but they are also potentially prone to debris flows and flash floods. The study of the geomorphic characteristics and development causes of alluvial fans can help to prevent and control geohazards and to rationally utilize soil and water resources, which has important scientific value and practical significance. Taking alluvial fans in the Parlung Tsangpo Basin, southeast Tibet as case samples and combining Google Earth, remote sensing images, and field surveys, we statistically analyzed the geomorphic characteristics, spatial differences, and main types of the regional alluvial fans, preliminarily examined the causes for their spatial diversity, and discussed the changes of the regional alluvial fans under the influence of climate change. The following conclusions were drawn: 1) The alluvial fan area fluctuates sharply in comparison with the slope in the Parlung Tsangpo Basin, and the mainstem alluvial fans are in general smaller and steeper than those developed in major tributaries; the alluvial fans of the three tributaries show a trend of increasing in area (in median values) from the upstream to the downstream (that is, fan areas of Quzong < Bodui < Yigong), while the slope shows a tendency of decrease; the fan area is weakly correlated with the contribution basin area, the fan slope is negatively correlated with the basin area and positively correlated with the ruggedness of the basin, and there are obvious differences in the fitting relationships between the alluvial fans of the four analyzed areas and the morphometric parameters of the basins. Alluvial fan-basin morphology parameters in the four analyzed areas shows obvious differences in the fitting relationships. 2) The morphological characteristics of the three types of fans in the basin, namely, fans formed by flood, debris flow, or colluvial processes, are quite different, and their links with the basins from which they originate are different, as shown by the fact that the correlation between the debris flow fans and the basin morphology parameters is the strongest, while that of the colluvial fans is very weak. 3) Fan development is affected by factors such as precipitation, sediment supply, dominant dynamic processes and the role of the main river, among others. Under the influence of climate change (for example, warming, increased heavy rainfall events, and so on), new alluvial fans are constantly created in the basin and the size (or even type) of the original alluvial fans is changing.

Urbanization is a necessary stage in the process of economic and social development. The current rapid urbanization has promoted the process of land use transitions, which has further triggered various environmental and economic effects. Conducting the coupling study here is to analyze the interactions between land use, its environmental cost, and its economic output based on the unique perspective of land use transition, as well as to further explore possible ways to achieve both environmental protection and economic development through regulations on land use transition. This article reviewed the important progress of research on land use transition and its environmental and economic effects, explored the concept of land use transition in a multidimensional space, and identified the implications and measurements of coupling. From the frontier of disciplines, the coupling of environmental and economic effects of land use transition is essentially a coupling of human activities and natural processes. How to regulate these relationships through land use transitions is an important content of human-environment research in the new era, as well as a major strategic topic for promoting the new urbanization.

New industrial path development is a classic research topic of Economic Geography. The evolutionary turn provides some novel perspectives for understanding such devleopment. However, the classic theory of Evolutionary Economic Geography mainly focuses on the core areas with superior advantages and successful development experience, and maintains that the development of new industries is based on the specific factors formed by history, thus is unsuitable for explaining the development trajectory of new industries in the peripheries, which are characterized by weak industrial foundation, labor shortage, and low level of knowledge and technology. Therefore, based on the life cycle, windows of locational opportunity (space), and related diversity and unrelated diversity literature, this review summarized the differences and connections between the core and the periphery, and the process of the new industrial path development in the peripheries. The formation of the new industrial path development in the peripheries is jointly affected by industrial heterogeneity, multi-scalar connection, entry method, and agency: 1) Industries characterized by gradual innovation, mature development stage, interactive learning, or special requirements are more likely to develop in the peripheries. 2) The occurrence of such development relies more on the strengthening of multi-scalar interaction and external connection. 3) The entry of such industries often takes the path of transplantation, branching, and extension. 4) The formation and strengthening of new industrial path development often result from the agency of multiple actors. Through identifying and seizing development opportunities, these actors try to match the development requirements of new industries. Finally, this article discussed aspects of future research according to the context of China's transformation period and the core-peripheral relationship.

Seasonal cycle is the crucial intraannual climate pattern to be observed in global and regional agricultural practice. Under global warming, the global surface has witnessed a significant increase in temperature over nearly half a century. As a result, various parameters associated with surface air temperatures, such as the lengths, start dates, and end dates of the four seasons, also changed dramatically. This study examined the following aspects: 1) It summarized the three types of season definition methods, including astronomical, meteorological, and phenological methods; absolute and relative temperature threshold methods; and other methods characterized by regional geographic factors and specific weather phenomena. 2) This study conducted an analysis on the long-term seasonal variation characteristics in the lower-middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the South China region during 1961-2015, using different seasonal division methods based on air temperature and analyzing the characteristics and differences in summer length calculated by different temperature indices. It also reviewed the characteristics of seasonal length changes in historical periods defined by different indicators and the future projected trends, and summarized the key reasons for seasonal length changes. 3) This study evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each seasonal division method from their fields of application and spatial applicability. Future research is prospected from the possible impact of data bias, the development of a commonly applicable index, and the mechanism of change under climate warming. The results of this study have clarified the differences of seasonal division methods, as well as the characteristics and causes of seasonal changes. This not only is beneficial for guiding agricultural production, but also provides reliable scientific information for addressing the climate change issue.