Exploring the spatiotemporal change patterns and influencing factors of the core industry of low-altitude manufacturing is of great significance for guiding the development of low-altitude manufacturing and improving the theory of industrial layout for the low-altitude economy. Taking Chongqing Municipality as a case study, this study supplemented the scope of core industries of low-altitude manufacturing in Chongqing based on the Statistical Classification of Low-Altitude Economy and Its Core Industries (Trial), combined with policy orientation and actual industrial development. On this basis, relevant enterprise data from 2015 to 2024 were collected, and the ArcGIS spatial analysis method, Geodetector, and Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) model were employed to explore their spatiotemporal change characteristics and influencing factors. The results show that: 1) The core industry of low-altitude manufacturing showed uneven development across the main urban area, northeastern Chongqing, southeastern Chongqing, and the pilot districts and counties for low-altitude equipment industry development, also with significant development gaps within each region. In comparison with equipment, parts, and components manufacturing and specialized facilities and equipment manufacturing, complete aircraft manufacturing is still in the initial stage. 2) Enterprises in the core industry of Chongqing's low-altitude manufacturing and their subdivisions are highly concentrated mainly in the central urban area and districts in western Chongqing such as Jiulongpo, Jiangbei, Yubei, Bishan, and Jiangjin. No obvious industrial agglomeration has been formed in the districts and counties of the Eastern Chongqing New Area, northeastern Chongqing, and southeastern Chongqing. 3) The spatiotemporal association patterns among the three segments of the low-altitude manufacturing core industry are as follows: the layout of the complete low-altitude aircraft manufacturing industry has strong autonomy and exerts a strong attraction on the low-altitude aircraft equipment, parts, and components manufacturing industry and the low-altitude specialized facilities and equipment manufacturing industry, while the latter two industries exhibit the characteristic of mutual attraction. 4) The number of high-quality enterprises in scientific research and technical services, the number of 4G/5G base stations per 10000 people, road mileage per square kilometer, permanent resident population, the number of vocational and technical colleges, the number of low-altitude service enterprises, the added value of the secondary industry, the proportion of high-quality low-altitude manufacturing enterprises among all high-quality manufacturing enterprises, the ratio of general public budget expenditure to GDP, urban residents' disposable income, fixed asset investment, and topographic relief degree. The intensity and direction of each factor's influence all show significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity.

China's 15th Five-Year Plan has designated the low-altitude economy as a strategic emerging industry. This study examined the spatial agglomeration patterns and driving mechanisms of low-altitude economy firms across four major urban agglomerations—Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), and Chengdu-Chongqing (CC)—using enterprise registration data from 2010 to 2025. Integrating the central place theory with the Geodetector method, we developed a unified "spatial pattern-hierarchical structure-driving mechanism" analytical framework. Three key findings emerged. First, the spatial distribution of firms displayed a "tri-core eastern linkage with a single western pole" pattern, evolving through three distinct phases: policy incubation (2010-2016), market awakening (2017-2020), and industrial explosion (2021-2025), with the industrial chain dominated by midstream support services. Second, central place hierarchies varied substantially across regions: BTH exhibited a single-core radial structure governed by transportation principles; YRD formed a polycentric network under market principles; PRD developed an atypical dual-core configuration lacking secondary centers; and CC presented a dual-city corridor shaped jointly by transportation and market forces. Third, Geodetector analysis revealed that resident population, GDP, low-altitude economy patents, and general airport density are the strongest explanatory factors, and all factor interactions produce enhancement effects rather than independent or weakening ones. We further identified three region-specific synergistic driving modes with distinct geographic signatures: A single-core service-radiation mode (BTH), a polycentric collaborative innovation mode (YRD), and a policy-driven inland catch-up mode (CC). These findings offer empirical evidence for differentiated industrial planning and coordinated regional development of China's low-altitude economy during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Low-altitude tourism enterprises are the core of the low-altitude tourism economy. To reveal the evolution patterns and driving mechanisms of the spatial distribution of China's low-altitude tourism enterprises, this study employed spatial exploratory analysis, regression analysis, and fsQCA qualitative comparative analysis methods. It systematically investigated the spatial distribution characteristics, evolutionary paths, and influencing factors of China's low-altitude tourism enterprises. This study found that: 1) Considering the number of low-altitude tourism enterprises, the development can be divided into three stages: nascent exploration, accelerated development, and explosive growth. The spatial pattern of these enterprises exhibited an evolutionary shift from single-pole leading to multi-pole coordination. 2) The foundation of low-altitude industries is the core driving force behind enterprises' location choices, demonstrating a supply-driven development logic, and its influence significantly outweighs that of tourism market demand factors. 3) The development of the low-altitude tourism industry followed four paths: comprehensive driving, technological compensation, resource reliance, and structural optimization. Different regions achieved the agglomeration and development of low-altitude tourism enterprises through differentiated combinations of conditions. Influenced by the industrial foundation, China's low-altitude tourism enterprises exhibited characteristics of supply-driven and coexistence of multiple development paths. In the future, a stimulating environment encompassing regionally differentiated guidance, basic support, and industrial collaboration should be established to form a new model for the high-quality development of low-altitude tourism, with the industrial foundation as the core and regional characteristics as the support.

With the vigorous development of global tourism, tourists' demands for travel experiences are becoming increasingly diverse. Low-altitude cultural tourism, as a new form of tourism, has opened up a new path for the innovation of travel experiences and the promotion of sustainable development in destinations of terraced field agricultural cultural heritage. This study took six globally important terraced field agricultural cultural heritage destinations, including the Hani Rice Terraces in Honghe, Yunnan, the Longji Terraced Fields in Longsheng, Guangxi, and the Zijuanjie Terraced Fields in Xinhua, Hunan, as cases. Based on the technology acceptance model theory, it used a combination of qualitative research and quantitative analysis methods. Through the grounded theory analysis of 51 semistructured interviews, a theoretical model of tourists' acceptance intention was constructed. Then, through 647 valid questionnaires, the structural equation model was used for empirical testing. The research findings are as follows: 1) The acceptance intention of tourists in terraced field agricultural cultural heritage destinations for low-altitude cultural tourism projects reflects a complete chain of influence from external factors, project attribute perception, attitude change, to the formation of acceptance intention. Among them, external factors include communication influence and policy environment, and project attribute perception includes perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived attractiveness, and perceived excitement. 2) Perceived ease of use has the strongest positive effect on perceived usefulness. Among the project attribute perception variables, communication impact and policy environment have the strongest positive influences on perceived excitement and perceived ease of use, respectively. Perceived ease of use indirectly promotes intention formation by enhancing perceived usefulness. 3) In addition to having a direct effect on acceptance intention, external factors also have an indirect impact through the chain of project attribute perception and attitude change, indicating that measures such as policy environment and communication influence need to be mediated through tourists' internal perception and attitude to effectively enhance their acceptance intention for low-altitude cultural tourism projects. The research provides a theoretical basis and practical reference for the planning and operation of low-altitude cultural tourism projects in terraced field agricultural cultural heritage destinations.

Against the strategic backdrop of fostering new quality productivity and advancing high-quality development, the low-altitude economy has increasingly become a key force in restructuring the supply system of the tourism sector and upgrading its development quality. Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2010 to 2023, this study delineated the spatiotemporal change of the low-altitude economy and the high-quality development of the tourism industry, and further explicated the impact and internal transmission mechanisms through which the low-altitude economy influences tourism high-quality development. The findings indicate that: 1) both systems exhibited an overall upward shift over time, while their distributions evolved from relative concentration to greater dispersion; spatially, an eastern-leading, central-following, and western-lagging pattern was observed, and the tourism industry showed localized fluctuations and heterogeneous recovery. 2) The low-altitude economy exerted a significantly positive effect on tourism high-quality development and generated positive spatial spillovers, implying that its influence extended beyond administrative boundaries and yielded external gains for neighboring regions. 3) The low-altitude economy indirectly promoted tourism high-quality development by strengthening environmental regulation and increasing per capita tourism consumption; moreover, the effect was nonlinear, characterized by a single-threshold feature in environmental regulation and a double-threshold feature in tourism consumption, with the marginal impact strengthening markedly once key thresholds were crossed. These results provide empirical evidence for clarifying how the low-altitude economy empowers tourism high-quality development and offer policy-relevant implications for regionally differentiated policy design.

As an important vehicle for developing new quality productivity, the low-altitude economy has emerged as a crucial driver promoting digital transformation and spatial expansion of China's traditional culture and tourism industry. Currently, the academic community has made considerable progress in conceptual definition, measurement methodologies, and theoretical frameworks of the low-altitude economy. However, empirical studies examining its socioeconomic impacts remain limited. Furthermore, while existing research has begun to explore innovative development models integrating the low-altitude economy with culture and tourism, the research paradigm is still confined to qualitative analysis and case studies, lacking systematic analysis of empowerment mechanisms and transmission pathways from the combined perspectives of consumption upgrading and green technological innovation. Employing panel fixed-effects models, mechanism test models, and spatial Durbin models, this study utilized the panel data from 30 Chinese provinces (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) spanning 2010-2023 to systematically construct multidimensional evaluation indicator systems for both the low-altitude economy and the culture and tourism industry. We empirically examined the enabling effects, underlying mechanisms, and spatial spillover characteristics of the low-altitude economy on the culture and tourism industry. The results indicate that: 1) The low-altitude economy and the culture and tourism industry in China exhibited distinct upward trajectories characterized by "dual-stage leaping" and "continuous optimization" respectively. Spatially, both demonstrated gradient distribution patterns with higher levels in southeastern regions and lower levels in northwestern areas, while their positive spatial correlation continued to strengthen. 2) The low-altitude economy exerted significant direct enabling effects on culture and tourism industry development, and the findings remain robust across various robustness checks. Furthermore, these enabling effects displayed heterogeneous characteristics across different geographical locations, communication infrastructure levels, and population density regions. 3) Mechanism analysis revealed that the low-altitude economy promoted quality enhancement and upgrading of the culture and tourism industry through two transmission channels: consumption expansion and quality enhancement, and green technology innovation, with regression coefficients of 0.347 and 0.955 respectively, both statistically significant. 4) The low-altitude economy generated significant spatial spillover effects on culture and tourism industry development. The spillover intensity followed an inverted U-shaped trajectory, initially increasing before declining, and gradually diminished as geographical distance extends beyond the 300 km threshold. This paper constructs a dual transmission mechanism framework—consumption expansion and quality improvement, and green technology innovation—to clarify how the low-altitude economy empowers the cultural and tourism industry. It also provides a theoretical foundation and decision-making reference for promoting the deep integration of China's low-altitude economy with its cultural and tourism sector.

Under the backdrop of the new round of technological revolution, the low-altitude economy has become an important direction for cultivating new quality productivity forces and reshaping spatial structure. However, typical cities in hilly areas are constrained by complex terrain and unfavorable meteorological conditions, which pose significant safety constraints and efficiency bottlenecks for the development of low-altitude airspace resources. Taking Dalian City, a typical hilly coastal city, as the research object, this study selected 0-1000 m as the operational airspace, and adopted a vertical stratification evaluation method considering clearance and meteorological constraints, integrating airspace management and no-fly zones, terrain, buildings, and ERA5 meteorological data to conduct airspace stratification. A multi-stage load balancing location model based on location set covering problem (LSCP) was constructed to optimize the layout of take-off and landing facilities. The improved artificial potential field method and the 2-opt algorithm were combined to generate flight paths and optimize routes. Moreover, a multi-functional airway network was constructed through methods such as area clustering and minimum spanning tree, ultimately forming an integrated planning framework covering three levels: airspace vertical stratification, take-off and landing facility location, and route planning and airway network construction. The research found that: 1) The vertical airspace of Dalian City is divided into flyable zones, strongly controlled zones, and no-fly zones, and the low-altitude airspace is further divided into four height bands: [0, 120) m, [120, 300) m, [300, 600) m, and [600, 1000] m. Among them, the [0, 120) m band is further divided into the near-ground interference layer ([0, 50) m) and the conventional operation layer ([50, 120) m), and each layer is adapted to the application scenarios in combination with meteorological risks. 2) The layout of take-off and landing facilities follows a progressive expansion from a "low-density, large-radius" backbone network to a "high-density, small-radius" terminal network, achieving a synergy between coverage efficiency and service load. 3) To meet the demands of community logistics, trunk-line logistics, aerial tourism, and air passenger transport, this study forms safe delivery flight paths, regional trunk airways, sightseeing routes, and commuter networks, respectively. This study provides a reference for the implementation of the low-altitude economy in similar hilly cities.

The operation of urban air mobility (UAM) aircrafts is closely connected with urban residents and the built environment. Identifying the competitiveness boundary of UAM compared to existing ground transportation is of practical significance for the planning and sustainable development of the low-altitude economy. Based on the time and economic costs of the for hire vehicles services, this study constructed a UAM trip model and a competitiveness analysis framework encompassing demand identification, advantage assessment, and spatial analysis to evaluate the competitiveness of UAM for different passenger groups. Using airport shuttle services in New York City as an empirical case, the study found that: 1) Airport shuttling demand in typical megacities exhibits distinct regional characteristics, with hotspots concentrated in limited spaces within urban core areas for business and travel, demonstrating potential for UAM development. 2) Differences in passengers' value of time, time of day, and trip distance are the three main factors influencing the competitiveness of UAM services. 3) To enhance the competitiveness relative to ground transportation, UAM infrastructure must be deeply integrated into the urban built-up environment and embedded in the urban fabric in a way that aligns with passenger behavioral patterns.

Ensuring both development and security constitutes a fundamental requirement for the high-quality development of the low-altitude tourism industry, while frequent safety accidents have become a critical bottleneck constraining its sustainable development. Drawing on multi-source data, including accident investigation reports and emergency response plans, this study employs social network analysis (SNA) with indicators of centrality, structural holes, and cohesive subgroups to systematically reveal the network structure and stage characteristics of cross-departmental collaborative governance in low-altitude tourism accidents. The results indicate that: 1) the collaborative governance of low-altitude tourism accidents involves multiple actors with broad departmental spans and complex collaborative relationships, forming a network characterized by high density and strong connectivity; 2) significant differences exist in network structures and role allocations across different types of accidents, forming a three-tier structure of "core leadership-intermediary coordination-peripheral execution". Specifically, low-altitude aerial sightseeing tours emphasize airworthiness and compliance, low-altitude aerial sports experiences focus on site supervision, and low-altitude aerial performances highlight airspace security; 3) the collaborative governance network exhibits an evolutionary trend from dispersion to consolidation across the pre-accident, in-accident, and post-accident stages, with subgroup structures dynamically shifting across the three stages of "functional separation-emergency collaboration-recovery coordination". This study aims to provide theoretical insights and practical implications for constructing a scientific and efficient collaborative governance system for low-altitude tourism safety.

In situ urbanization represents a significant component of China's new-type urbanization strategy and a crucial pathway for achieving comprehensive rural revitalization. It substantially impacts both the advancement of the overall urbanization process and the sustainable development of rural areas. Based on field investigations in four typical villages in Gansu Province, this study explored the practical pathways and driving mechanisms of in situ urbanization in the rural areas of western China. The study aimed to reveal the distinctive characteristics and underlying patterns of urbanization development in this region. The results of the study show that: 1) The transformation and development of the four case study sites are characterized by a shift from traditional farming toward the integration of modern and diversified industries. Shaped by their geographic positioning and key drivers, these areas have developed four distinct models of in situ urbanization: tourism- and culture-led, enterprise-led, large city suburban integration, and government-led poverty alleviation relocation. 2) In situ urbanization in rural areas stems from the interplay of internal and external forces. Supported and led by government policies such as rural revitalization, external social capital, market mechanisms, and the introduction of external enterprises help stimulate local vitality. The efficient Party branch governance and the leading roles of rural elites effectively promote the release of endogenous development momentum of rural areas, including the systematic integration of local resources. Together, these factors foster diverse pathways to in situ urbanization. Among these, government policies serve as a crucial external impetus for promoting in situ urbanization in the rural areas of western China, while the leadership of village Party branches and industrial development constitute the two core endogenous driving forces.

Under the background of global warming, spring, as the transitional season between winter and summer, is highly sensitive to regional climate change. Its temporal change and internal thermal characteristics therefore hold significant ecological and socioeconomic implications. Based on daily temperature observations from 105 meteorological stations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region during 1961-2024, this study systematically analyzed the temporal change, spatial pattern, and climatic response of spring, with particular emphasis on the potential impacts of spring onset advancement on extreme temperature events. The results show that the onset date of spring in the BTH region advanced significantly at a rate of 2.6 days per decade over the past 64 years, whereas spring length showed only a weakly significant and relatively small increasing trend. The advancement of spring onset was most pronounced over the central-southern Hebei plain and the Beijing-Tianjin urban belt. Rising temperature was identified as the dominant driver of earlier spring onset. Specifically, annual mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures increased at rates of 0.30, 0.25, and 0.41 ℃ per decade, respectively, and spring onset was significantly negatively correlated with all three temperature indicators. Following earlier spring onset, mean spring temperature tended to be lower, whereas the warm anomaly amplitude (i_max) and mean anomaly (i_avg) increased, accompanied by intensified day-to-day temperature variability (DTDT), indicating enhanced instability of internal spring thermal processes. Meanwhile, rapid warming and cooling events with day-to-day temperature differences exceeding ±3 ℃ increased significantly, with the most pronounced amplification occurring in the tail intervals, suggesting a clear enhancement of extremes. Overall, this study revealed an integrated "earlier spring onset-enhanced variability-elevated risk" pattern in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and provides a scientific basis for regional agrometeorological services, ecosystem management, and urban climate adaptation.

Soybean is a strategic crop for national food security. Under global climate change, the Northeast Chinaproduction region is facing systemic phenological shifts. Clarifying the spatiotemporal evolution and stability of soybean developmental stages is therefore essential for optimizing regional cropping systems and mitigating climate risks. Using 1981-2024 observational data from 43 agrometeorological stations, this study constructs a "trend-stability-risk" framework integrating Sen's slope, Mann-Kendall test, sliding CV, K-means clustering, and Kriging interpolation to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of soybean developmental stages and their geographical driving mechanisms. Results show a "delayed in the north, advanced in the south" spatial pattern, with sowing date exhibiting the largest change (-2.13 d/10 a to 16.0 d/10 a), and 34.8% of stations showing significant delays. The growth period length demonstrates "shortening in the south, stabilizing in the north", while stability forms a "stable center, fluctuating margins" risk pattern, with low-risk zones highly coinciding with the central medium-maturity transition area. Geographical drivers shift from strong latitudinal/longitudinal control in vegetative stages (correlations up to 0.784) to longitudinal dominance at maturity (0.426). A compensatory mechanism accelerates the vegetative-to-reproductive transition (correlation -0.846 with latitude) in northern/eastern regions to offset early delays. This framework overcomes the traditional limitation of focusing on trends while neglecting stability, providing a multidimensional assessment of phenological responses of soybeans to climate change. It clarifies the regional patterns and risk landscape of soybean phenological responses to climate change in Northeast China, providing an important scientific basis for optimizing regional soybean production layout and formulating differentiated climate adaptation strategies.

The Zoige Basin is situated within the monsoon-westerlies transition zone on the north‐eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The thick and continuous aeolian sequences distributed in this area serve as valuable archives for revealing paleoclimatic changes in high-altitude environments. Based on a field investigation of aeolian sediments in the Zoige Basin, this study focused on the Xiuma (XM) loess-paleosol profile on the glaciofluvial fan front in the Maqu Valley. We analyzed its grain size, magnetic susceptibility, loss-on-ignition, chroma, major elements, and micromorphology. Integrated with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, we investigated the chemical weathering intensity of the profile and its climatic implications. The results indicate that: 1) The stratigraphic sequence and chronological framework of the XM profile are as follows: loess L₁ (15.5-8.5 ka BP) → paleosol S₀ (8.5-3.0 ka BP) → loess L₀ (3.0-1.3 ka BP) → modern surface soil MS (1.3-0 ka BP). 2) Parameters such as the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA), Chemical Index of Weathering (CIW), Rb/Sr, and Na₂O/K₂O ratios show that the overall chemical weathering degree of the profile is weak, corresponding to an initial weathering stage dominated by plagioclase alteration. The weathering intensity of different stratigraphic units follows the order of S₀ > MS + L₀ > L₁. 3) The profile clearly documents the climatic evolution since 15.5 ka BP: a cold and dry climate with strong aeolian activity during 15.5-8.5 ka BP; a shift to a warm and humid climate with significantly enhanced pedogenesis during 8.5-3.0 ka BP; and a return to a colder and drier trend after 3.0 ka BP. These findings demonstrate that the climate in the study area responded sensitively to global climate change, providing new evidence for paleoenvironmental reconstruction on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.