Urban agglomeration is the main spatial organization mode used by the Chinese government to promote the policy of new urbanization strategy. Hence, a better understanding of the urban growth boundary (UGB) has profound theoretical and practical significance regarding sustainable urban development. This study devised a raster-based land use spatial optimization (LUSO) framework, and utilized ant colony

Coastal zones are key interconnectors of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Due to the degradation and fragmentation of coastal wetlands, there is an urgent need to develop assessment methodology to compare the health of wetland ecosystems at different spatial scales. This will help efficiently develop and implement protections using easy-to-access ecosystem health data. This study aims to understand

Understanding the spatial patterns of land-use and land-cover (LULC) and their driving forces in transnational areas is important for the sustainable development of these regions. However, the spatial patterns of LULC and their driving forces across multiple scales are poorly understood in transnational areas. In this study, we analyzed the spatial patterns of LULC and driving forces in the transnational

Promoting women’s employment is not only the need of social and economic development, but also the historical mission of liberating women. This paper uses data from the 1% Population Sample Survey, taken in Guangdong Province in 2015, to explore how women’s marital status, education, and family environment affect the female non-agricultural employment rate (FNAER) on a county scale using a spatial-lag

Grassland fires results in carbon emissions, which directly affects the carbon cycle of ecosystems and the carbon balance. The grassland area of Inner Mongolia accounts for 22% of the total grassland area in China, and many fires occur in the area every year. However, there are few models for estimation of carbon emissions from grassland fires. Accurate estimation of direct carbon emissions from grassland

This study aims to verify the concept of niches at multiple spatial scales in plant communities. To this end, we analyzed the niche characteristic of Rhododendron dauricum plant communities in Northeast China at three spatial scales. At the local scale, we calculated the Importance Value (IV) of species in five communities in the north of the Da Hinggan Mountains. At the intermediate scale, we examined

Frozen ground degradation under a warming climate profoundly influences the growth of alpine vegetation in the source region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This study investigated spatiotemporal variations in the frozen ground distribution, the active layer thickness (ALT) of permafrost (PF) soil and the soil freeze depth (SFD) in seasonally frozen soil from 1980 to 2018 using the temperature at the

Green development is an important issue of sustainable development in China. Due to the relatively backward economy and the fragile ecological environment, restricted development zones need to embrace green development. Taking 38 counties in Jilin Province as the empirical research objects, and based on cross-sectional data for each county in 2005, 2010, and 2015, we accurately depicted the spatiotemporal

China is experiencing conflicts between its large population and scarce arable land, and between a demand for high productivity and the severe soil erosion of arable land. Since 1949, China has committed to soil and water conservation (SWC), for which eight regions and 41 subregions have been developed to improve the environment and increase land productivity. To obtain information from the regional

The objective of this study is to develop a framework for re-examining and re-defining the classical concepts of spatial interaction and reorganization in the urban system. We introduce a modified radiation model for spatial interactions, coupled with migration big data, transport accessibility algorithm, and city competitiveness assessment for efficient distribution of the inter-city flow through

Nowadays, urban transit system has become one of the major forces underlying urban pace transformation via changing accessibility of related land parcels, which leads to the changes of land value and land use structure. This paper studied the interaction between land use changes and related transport routes, particular about how different transport routes and road nodes influence the conversion of

Cold storage is the vital infrastructure of cold chain logistics. In this study, we analyzed the spatial pattern evolution characteristics, spatial autocorrelation and influencing factors of cold storage in China by using kernel density estimation (KDE), spatial autocorrelation analysis (SAA), and spatial error model (SEM). Results showed that: 1) the spatial distribution of cold storage in China is

Episodic deposition has been recognized as a major factor affecting the decomposition rate of detrital material in salt marshes. In this paper, three one-off burial treatments, no burial treatment (0 cm, NBT), current burial treatment (10 cm, CBT) and strong burial treatment (20 cm, SBT), were designed in intertidal zone of the Yellow River Estuary to determine the potential influences of episodic

Global numerous wetlands are the most productive ecosystem and have high carbon sequestration potential to mitigate increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. However, few are available on estimating average carbon sequestration rates by global wetlands (Carbonsq) at century timescale. In this article, Carbonsq data of 473 wetland soil/sediment cores from the literatures were collected in detail by the meta-analysis

Income inequality in urban China has attracted growing attention from China’s urban researchers and policy makers. Whereas many studies have interrogated the pattern and process of the income gap in Chinese cities undergoing the institutional transformation from plan to market, relatively little is known about how such unequal distribution of income is related to China’s ongoing structural transformation

Vegetation maps are fundamental for regional-scale ecological research. However, information is often not sufficiently up to date for such research. The Loess Plateau is a key area for vegetation restoration projects and a suitable area for regional ecological research. To carry out regional vegetation mapping based on the principles of hierarchical classification, object-oriented methods, visual interpretation

Improving comprehensive agricultural productivity is an important measure to realize agricultural modernization. Based on the data from Jilin Statistical Yearbook, this study analyzed the spatial and temporal characteristics of comprehensive agricultural productivity discrepancy in the main agricultural production areas of Jilin Province, China. The comprehensive agricultural productivity of 25 county-level

Since the 1980s, Japan has witnessed an unprecedented decline in agriculture chiefly due to farmers’ aging, depopulation, and unfavorable socio-economic conditions. This development has resulted in an increase of farmland abandonment (FLA) across the country. However, it remains unclear as to how and to what extent FLA is influenced by intraregional agricultural characteristics. As such, this article

Downstream changes in channel morphology and flow over the ephemeral Dwarkeswar River in the western part of the Bengal Basin, eastren India were investigated. The river stretches from the Proterozoic Granite Gneiss Complex to the recent Holocene alluvium, forming three distinctive geomorphological regions across the river basin: the pediplane and upper and lower alluvial areas. Sixty cross-sections

This study attempts to evaluate the rationality of the spatial layout of shopping malls and identify the urban area with poor shopping mall accessibility, as well as to provide a reference and assist decision-making for planning. Using the case of Nanjing, China, this study developed a method to evaluate the accessibility of shopping malls by three transport modes (car traffic, public transit, and

Ecological civilisation construction is a strategy for regional sustainable development based on a regional system of human-land relations. The comprehensive measurement and regional differentiation in construction levels are the key issues of ecological civilisation construction. This study aims to build 35 index systems that coalesce on four aspects: ecological economic adjustment and operation,

The spatial interaction model is an effective way to explore the geographical disparities inherent in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by simulating spatial flows. The traditional gravity model implies the hypothesis of equilibrium points without any reference to when or how to achieve it. In this paper, a dynamic gravity model was established based on the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) theory to estimate

In this study, using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite images and environmental satellite CCD images, the spatio-temporal distribution of Ulva prolifera in the southern Yellow Sea during the period of 2011–2018 was extracted and combined with MODIS Level3 Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) product data and Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) Sea Surface Temperature

Following the trends of Chinese rural transformation development, and the sustainable development goals for resources and environment, reasonable arranging the potential development space and the ecological space, so as to optimize the distributions of rural settlement would be the key challenge for rural areas in ecologically fragile regions. From the perspective of maintaining regional ecological

The increasing availability of data in the urban context (e.g., mobile phone, smart card and social media data) allows us to study urban dynamics at much finer temporal resolutions (e.g., diurnal urban dynamics). Mobile phone data, for instance, are found to be a useful data source for extracting diurnal human mobility patterns and for understanding urban dynamics. While previous studies often use

This article [1] the authors. The work presented in this article was previously published in chinese [2]. All authors agree to this retraction.

This article [1] has been retracted at the request of the authors. The work presented in this article was previously published in Chinese [2]. All authors agree to this retraction.

Urban particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) pollution and public health are closely related, and concerns regarding PM2.5 are widespread. Of the underlying factors, the urban morphology is the most manageable. Therefore, investigations of the impact of urban three-dimensional (3D) morphology on PM2.5 concentration have important scientific significance. In this paper, 39 PM2.5 monitoring sites of Beijing

The rapid invasion of the plant Spartina alterniflora in coastal wetland areas can threaten the capacity of their soils to store carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S). In this study, we investigated the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of C, N and S of both soil and (native and invasive) plants in four typical coastal wetlands in the core area of the Yancheng National Nature Reserve, China

The emergence of rapid transit, primarily represented by high-speed railway (HSR), while reshaping the regional traffic patterns, leads to the reconstruction and redistribution of population and industry. This leads to either shrinkage or expansion of urban scale. However, research on the influence mechanisms of the urban scale has mostly concentrated on historical, economic and social factors. The

The burning of crop residues emits large quantities of atmospheric aerosols. Published studies have developed inventories of emissions from crop residue burning based on statistical data. In contrast, this study used satellite-retrieved land-cover data (1 km × 1 km) as activity data to compile an inventory of atmospheric pollutants emitted from the burning of crop residues in China in {dy2015}. The

Multiple natural and human factors in estuarine wetlands result in complicated land surface characteristics with distinct spatial and temporal heterogeneities, thereby contributing to the difficulty in identifying spatiotemporal variations and influencing factors of plant diversity. A unique estuarine wetland gradient system (UEWGS) consisting of soil, vegetation, heat, distance, landscape, and anthropogenic

The relationship between livelihood diversification of farm households and cultivated land utilization has become a core research topic related to global environmental change. Agro-pastoral ecologically-vulnerable areas face challenges such as insufficient ecosystem conservation, low agricultural production, and weak economies. In this study, 215 farm households from Zhengxiangbai Banner, Taibus Banner

The alpine wetlands in QTP (Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau) have been profoundly impacted along with global climate changes. We employ satellite datasets and climate data to explore the relationships between alpine wetlands and climate changes based on remote sensing data. Results show that: 1) the wetland NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and GPP (Gross Primary Production) were more sensitive

This study analyzed the spatial-temporal heterogeneity of green development efficiency and its influencing factors in the growing Xuzhou Metropolitan Area for the period 2000-2015. The slacks-based measure (SBM) model, spatial autocorrelation, and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model were used to conduct the analysis. The conclusions were as follows: first, the overall efficiency of green

The impact of human carbon emissions on climate has generated widespread global concern. We selected 24 countries as research objects and analysed the changes in carbon emissions in different countries between the establishment of emission reduction actions in 1990 and 2014. Then, we selected 19 factors representing four categories (economy, population, technology and energy) to explore the key factors

The area of land utilized for growing vegetables in greenhouses has expanded rapidly on the Tibetan Plateau over recent decades. However, the effects of greenhouses on soil fertility as well as variations in these effects between the plateau and plain remain unclear on the Tibetan Plateau. This study assessed the effects of vegetable greenhouses in the vicinity of Lhasa, using open field soil as a

Alpine grassland of the Tibetan Plateau has undergone severe degradation, even desertification. However, several questions remain to be answered, especially the response mechanisms of vegetation biomass to soil properties. In this study, an experiment on degradation gradients was conducted in an alpine meadow at the Zoige Plateau in 2017. Both vegetation characteristics and soil properties were observed

Urban agglomeration research has received increasing attention in China’s national development strategies, and has become a hot topic in academic research. This study develops a theoretical framework that explores the formation mechanism and expansion process of urban agglomerations from the perspective of industrial evolution, and identifies the development issues and their causes by taking Yangtze

The cooling and humidifying effects of urban parks are an essential component of city ecosystems in terms of regulating microclimates or mitigating urban heat islands (UHIs). Air temperature and relative humidity are two main factors of thermal environmental comfort and have a critical impact on the urban environmental quality of human settlements. We measured the 2-m height air temperature and relative

Biological invasion poses a huge threat to ecological security. Spartina alterniflora was introduced into China in 1979, and its arrival corresponded with negative effects on native ecosystems. To explore geographical variation of its expansion rate in coastal China, we selected 43 S. alterniflora sites from Tianjin Coastal New Area to Beihai. The area expansion rate, expansion rate paralleling and

The change in land development intensity is an important perspective to reflect the variation in regional social and economic development and spatial differentiation. In this paper, spatial statistical analysis, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), and Geographically weighted regression (GWR) methods are used to systematically analyse the spatial-temporal characteristics and driving forces of land development

Landscape characters in estuarine regions generally controlled by tidal regimes and human activities like road construction. In this work, tidal channels and road construction in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) were extracted by visual interpretation methods so as to decipher impacts of tidal channel development and road construction on landscape patch change during 1989–2016. Spatial distribution history

In this paper, we use factor analysis to evaluate the urban comprehensive quality of each city in the Lanzhou-Xining (Lan-Xi) urban agglomeration. The time distance was obtained by using GIS spatial analysis, and the structure and pattern of the spatial network were analyzed by using the gravity model and social network analysis method. The results show that: 1) The scale effect of the Lan-Xi urban

A thorough understanding of the vegetation succession in relation to both climatic changes and anthropogenic activities is vital for the formulation of adaptation strategies that address potential ecosystem challenges. Various climatic factors such as temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation, as well as anthropogenic factors such as ecological engineering and population migration, will affect

As an important means regulating the relationship between human and natural ecosystem, ecological restoration program plays a key role in restoring ecosystem functions. The Grain-for-Green Program (GFGP, One of the world’s most ambitious ecosystem conservation set-aside programs aims to transfer farmland on steep slopes to forestland or grassland to increase vegetation coverage) has been widely implemented

Regional ecological health, the core of comprehensive ecosystem assessments, is an important foundation for regional exploration, environmental conservation, and sustainable development. The mountainous areas in southwest China are backward in economy, but industrialization and urbanization have been rapid in recent years. This study assessed the ecosystem health of the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces

Using a heterogeneity stochastic frontier model (HSFM), we empirically investigated the economic efficiency of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from 2003 to 2016 and its influencing factors. The key findings of the paper lie in: 1) in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the overall economic and technological efficiency tended to increase in a wavelike manner, economic growth slowed down, and there was an obvious imbalance

In recent years, researchers have devoted considerable attention to identifying the causes of urban environmental pollution. To determine whether migrant populations significantly affect urban environments, we examined the relationship between urban environmental pollutant emissions and migrant populations at the prefectural level using data obtained for 90 Chinese cities evidencing net in-migration

Resource-dependent cities (RCs) are a vulnerable group of urban settlements that often face population shrinkage; however, population changes in RCs in China are not well understood. This study offers new insight into this matter through a robust analysis that features a longer time scale, a larger sample of RCs, and a finer unit of analysis. It finds new evidence that problems of population shrinkage

Stable oxygen isotopes in precipitation contain meaningful environmental information on a synoptic scale and can be applied to diagnose hydrometeorological processes. A series of rainstorms occurred at the southern Tianshan Mountains during the period from May to June 2013, and the event-based precipitation was sampled along the mountain range from west to east. Based on δ18O values in precipitation

The Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (MR-SNWDP) in China, with construction beginning in 2003, diverts water from Danjiangkou Reservoir to North China for residential, agriculture and industrial use. The water source area of the MR-SNWDP is the region that is most sensitive to and most affected by the construction of this water diversion project. In this study, we used Landsat

Reference values of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) are the key to interpret ESR blood test in clinic. The common local reference ESR values are more accuracy in blood test that are established with natural geographical factors by using the multiple linear regression (MLR) model and the artificial neural network (ANN). These knowledge-based methods have limitations since the knowledge domains

The economic transformation of the old industrial bases is a key research topic among geographers in China. In this paper, we propose that the concept of regional economic resilience (RER) has unique theoretical value in analyzing the economic transformation of the old industrial bases. We constructed an analytical framework and an index system and applied the conceptual tools to study the evolution

Climate changes are likely to increase the risk of numerous extreme weather events throughout the world. The objectives of this study were to investigate and analyze the temporal-spatial variability patterns of temperature extremes based on daily maximum (TX) and minimum temperature (TN) data collected from 49 meteorological stations in Xinjiang of China during 1960–2015. These temperature data were

Xinjiang is located in the core China’s ‘Belt and Road’ development, and northern Xinjiang is an important region for economic development. In recent years, due to the strong influence of global climate change and human disturbance, regional climate instability and ecological-economic-social system sensitivity have grown. In this paper, seasonal, interannual, interdecadal, spatial, abrupt, and periodic

As innovation and technological change have become increasingly important for the competitiveness and sustainable growth of firms, cooperative innovation is now crucial for traditional industries in the context of globalization. This paper proposes a framework for analyzing the spatial pattern of cooperative innovation for traditional industries in developing countries. Based on in-depth interviews

This paper aims to examine the effect of agglomeration on firm level productivity in Iran’s food manufacturing by employing a firm level dataset during 1986–2015 among firms for four districts. The empirical results show that agglomeration in north districts are key factors in productivity growth. In this work, we apply a spatial Bayes model that uses hierarchical techniques during the three terms

"This paper, taking Nanhai City of Guangdong Province as an example, focuses on five interrelated aspects of the migrant labour force of China in recent years. Attention is initially paid to the background of the labour migration from inland towards coastal areas. Then, the demographic characteristics of the migrant labour force are analysed before turning to the analysis [of] the reasons for the migration