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It is an important way to realize rural revitalization and sustainable development to guide rural settlement transition (RST) in an appropriate way. This paper uses actor network theory (ANT) to construct a theoretical framework for the study of RST. Taking two typical villages with different transition paths in rural areas of North China Plain as examples, this paper reveals the mechanism of RST and makes a comparative analysis. The results show that: 1) after identifying problems and obligatory passage point, key actors recruit heterogeneous actors into the actor network by entrusting them with common interests, and realize RST under the system operation. 2) Rural settlements under different transition paths have similarities in the problems to be solved, collective actions and policy factors, but there are differences in the transition process, mechanism and effect. The actor network and mechanism of RST through the path of new rural community construction are more complex and the transition effect is more thorough. In contrast, the degree of RST of retention development path is limited if there is no resource and location advantage. 3) Based on the applicable conditions of different paths, this paper designs a logical framework of 'Situation-Structure-Behavior-Result' to scientifically guide the identification of RST paths under the background of rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-region innovation is widely recognized as an important source of the long-term regional innovation capacity. In the recent past, a growing number of studies has investigated the network structure and mechanisms of cross-region innovation collaboration in various contexts. However, existing research mainly focuses on physical effects, such as geographical distance and high-speed railway connections. These studies ignore the intangible drivers in a changing environment, the more digitalized economy and the increasingly solidified innovation network structure. Thus, the focus of this study is on estimating determinants of innovation networks, especially on intangible drivers, which have been largely neglected so far. Using city-level data of Chinese patents (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Province of China), we trace innovation networks across Chinese cities over a long period of time. By integrating a measure on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development gap and network structural effects into the general proximity framework, this paper explores the changing mechanisms of Chinese innovation networks from a new perspective. The results show that the structure of cross-region innovation networks has changed in China. As mechanisms behind this development, the results confirm the increasingly important role of intangible drivers in Chinese inter-city innovation collaboration when controlling for effects of physical proximity, such as geographical distance. Since digitalization and coordinated development are the mainstream trends in China and other developing countries, these countries' inter-city innovation collaboration patterns will witness dramatic changes under the influence of intangible drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the transformation of China's industry and demographic structure, urban shrinkage, especially the resource-based cities due to their single industrial structure, tend to emerge gradually. Using empirical and quantitative methods, this paper explores the evolution mechanism of urban shrinkage in Hegang, a resource-based city in China. Our findings suggest that there are many correlations or cyclic relationships among variables, which provide an empirical confirmation for the complexity of urban shrinkage process. The result shows there is a time delay of about four to five years between the mining industry and the changes of demographic profile, economic performance and built environment variables. The development of Hegang has formed a path dependence on resource-based industries. Furthermore, the time lags between demographic profile and economic performance variables are not obvious, and the real estate market has a certain sensitivity to perceive population loss and economic change. Besides, market led public service facilities are more sensitive to the changes of population outflow and economic recession than government led public service facilities. The study findings could offer insights for other resource-based cities in developing countries to employ on the economic development policies issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 and monitor the interconnection intensity and dynamic characters of bilateral relations. In order to detect the determinants of interconnection intensity, a Geodetector method was applied to identify and evaluate the determinants of spatial networks in five dimensions. The empirical study clearly demonstrates a heterogeneous and non-circular spatial structure. The main driving forces of spatial-temporal evolution are foreign direct investment, tourism and railway infrastructure construction, while determinants in different sub-regions show obvious spatial differentiation. Southeast Asian countries are typically multi-island area where aviation infrastructure plays a more important role. North and Central Asian countries regard oil as a pillar industry where power and port facilities have a greater impact on the interconnection. While Western Asian countries are mostly influenced by the railway infrastructure, Eastern European countries already have relatively robust infrastructure where tariff policies provide a greater impetus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms are embedded in complex networks, where diverse ideas combine and generate new ideas. Shareholders of firms are often seen as critical external resources that have significant influence on firm innovation. The current literature tends to focus on the relationship between firms and their shareholders, while paying less attention to the connections between firms with the same shareholders. This article identifies two types of network spillover effects, intra-city network effect and inter-city network effect, by visualizing the co-ownership networks in China's electric vehicle (EV) industry. We find that firms with the same shareholders, which are defined as co-owned EV firms, are more innovative than non-co-owned ones. Furthermore, there are two dominant types of firm co-ownership ties formed by corporate and financial institution shareholders. While corporate shareholders help exploiting local tacit knowledge, financial institutions are more active in bridging inter-city connections. The conclusion is confirmed at both firm and city levels. This paper theorizes the firm co-ownership network as a new form of institutional proximity and tested the result empirically. For policy consideration, we have emphasized the importance of building formal or informal inter-firm network, and the government should further enhance the knowledge flow channel by institutional construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to interpret the connotation of high-quality development of tourism economy (HQTE) from the perspective of the new development concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing, and then to evaluate the spatial differentiation of China's HQTE based on provincial panel data from 2009 to 2018. Specifically, we employ the spatial convergence model to explore the absolute and conditional β convergence trends of HQTE in the whole country and the eastern, central and western regions of China. Our empirical results reveal that: 1) within the decade, from 2009 to 2018, regions of China with the highest HQTE index is its eastern region followed by the central region and then the western region, but the fastest growing one is the western region of China followed by the central region and then the eastern region. 2) Whether or not the spatial effect is included, there are absolute and conditional β convergence in HQTE in the whole country and aforementioned three regions. 3) The degree of government attention as well as the level of economic development and location accessibility are the positive driving factors for the convergence of HQTE in the whole country and the three regions. The degree of marketization and human capital have not passed the significance test either in the whole country or in the three regions. The above conclusions could deepen the understanding of the regional imbalance and spatial convergence characteristics of HQTE, clarify the primary development objects, and accomplish the goal of China's HQTE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For mankind's survival and development, water, energy, and food (WEF) are essential material guarantees. In China, however, the spatial distribution of WEF is seriously unbalanced and mismatched. Here, a collaborative governance mechanism that aims at nexus security needs to be urgently established. In this paper, the Yellow River Basin in China with a representative WEF system, was selected as a case. Firstly, a comprehensive framework for WEF coupling coordination was constructed, and the relationship and mechanism between them were analyzed theoretically. Then, we investigated the spatiotemporal characteristics and driving mechanisms of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) with a composite evaluation method, coupling coordination degree model, spatial statistical analysis, and multiscale geographic weighted regression. Finally, policy implications were discussed to promote the coordinated development of the WEF system. The results showed that: 1) WEF subsystems showed a significant imbalance of spatial pattern and diversity in temporal changes; 2) the CCD for the WEF system varied little and remained at moderate coordination. Areas with moderate coordination have increased, while areas with superior coordination and mild disorder have decreased. In addition, the spatial clustering phenomenon of the CCD was significant and showed obvious characteristics of polarization; and 3) the action of each factor is self-differentiated and regionally variable. For different factors, GDP per capita was of particular importance, which contributed most to the regional development's coupling coordination. For different regions, GDP per capita, average yearly precipitation, population density, and urbanization rate exhibited differences in geographical gradients in an east-west direction. The conclusion can provide references for regional resource allocation and sustainable development by enhancing WEF system utilization efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural innovation is important for the green transformation of agriculture. Based on the perspective of technology transformation, this paper builds a theoretical analysis framework and evaluation index system for green efficiency of agricultural innovation, and discusses the evolution laws and influencing factors of the green efficiency of China's agricultural innovation from 2005 to 2017 utilizing the DEA model, Malmquist index, and Tobit regression analysis. The results show that: 1) The overall green efficiency of China's agricultural innovation is not high, the green efficiency of agricultural innovation in eastern China is mainly driven by pure technical efficiency, while that in central and western China is mainly driven by the scale efficiency. The green efficiency of agricultural innovation shows significant spatial differences, and the low efficiency and relatively low-efficiency regions moved to central and southeastern China. 2) Technical progress is the main force affecting the change of green total factor productivity of China's agricultural innovation, seeing a trend of decrease followed by an increase. Pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency exhibit an increasing-decreasing trend, and gradually transform into key factors that restrict the improvement of the green total factor productivity of agricultural innovation. 3) Agricultural technologies' diffusion, absorption, and implementation are three influencing factors of the green efficiency of agricultural innovation. The local level of informatization, the number of agricultural technicians in enterprises and institutions, average education level of residents, and the level of agricultural mechanization have positive impacts on the promotion of the green efficiency of agricultural innovation, promoting the diffusion, absorption and implementation of agricultural innovation technology can significantly improve the green efficiency of agricultural innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 industrial lands to residential and commercial uses respectively. Taking Changchun, an old industrial city in the rust belt of China as a case of study, we explored and compared the influences of different transport routes and road nodes on industrial land conversion. We found that surrounding the studied transport routes, more industrial lands were replaced by residential lands than by commercial lands. Also, apparent differences exist in the corridor effects of different transport routes (i.e., light rail, expressway and trunk road) and road nodes (i.e., expressway nodes and trunk road nodes) while the industrial lands convert to residential and commercial uses. Our research findings help us to illuminate the interactive relationships between transportation and industrial land conversion in old industrial cities which are undergoing social, economic and the related urban transition in Northeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural green development is an essential direction for global sustainable agriculture. The academic literature, however, needs to place greater emphasis on studying the factors influencing agricultural green development performance and how such performance can be improved. A theoretical framework for agricultural green development performance was constructed in this paper using the Super-SBM model, which considers undesirable outputs, to measure the agricultural green development performance of 330 cities at or above the prefecture level in China (excluding Tibet Autonomous Region, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China) from 2007 to 2018. Furthermore, the influencing mechanism of agricultural green development performance was then analyzed using a spatial econometric model. The results show that: 1) from 2007 to 2018, China's agricultural green development performance experienced three stages of evolution: 'rise, decline and rise'. 2) The regions with high performance agricultural green development are mainly distributed in eastern China, northeastern China, and southern Qinghai Province. 3) The agricultural economic level, industrialization process, and labor quality play significant roles in promoting local agricultural green development performance, while such performance is obviously inhibited by the openness level and the government's environmental regulations. Local agricultural green development performance is significant inhibited by the agricultural economic level and accelerated industrialization process in neighboring cities, while significantly promoted by the agricultural industrial structure in neighboring cities. Some suggestions for improving agricultural green development performance are proposed based on these research results, which can provide scientific references for promoting sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aviation industry has become one of the top ten greenhouse gas emission industries in the world. China's aviation carbon emissions continue to increase, but the analysis of its influencing factors at the provincial level is still incomplete. This paper firstly uses Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology model (STIRPAT) model to analyze the time series evolution of China's aviation carbon emissions from 2000 to 2019. Secondly, it uses the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LDMI) model to analyze the influencing characteristics and degree of four factors on China's aviation carbon emissions, which are air transportation revenue, aviation route structure, air transportation intensity and aviation energy intensity. Thirdly, it determines the various factors' influencing direction and evolution trend of 31 provinces' aviation carbon emissions in China (not including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan of China due to incomplete data). Finally, it derives the decoupling effort model and analyzes the decoupling relationship and decoupling effort degree between air carbon emissions and air transportation revenue in different provinces. The study found that from 2000 to 2019, China's total aviation carbon emissions continued to grow, while the growth rate of aviation carbon emissions showed a fluctuating downward trend. Air transportation revenue and aviation route structure promote the growth of total aviation carbon emissions, and air transportation intensity and aviation energy intensity have a restraining effect on the growth of total aviation carbon emissions. The scope of negative driving effect of air transportation revenue and air transportation intensity on total aviation carbon emissions in various provinces has increased. While the scope of positive driving influence of aviation route structure on total aviation carbon emissions of various provinces has increased, aviation energy intensity mainly has negative driving influence on total aviation carbon emissions of each province. Overall, the emission reduction trend in the areas to the west and north of the Qinling-Huaihe River Line is obvious. The decoupling mode between air carbon emissions and air transportation revenue in 31 provinces is mainly expansion negative decoupling. The air transportation intensity effect shows strong decoupling efforts in most provinces, the decoupling effort of aviation route structure effect and aviation energy intensity effect is not prominent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the leading urban agglomeration in China, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) is experiencing a factor-driven to innovation-driven transition. However, the dynamics of regional innovation growth are not yet fully understood. This paper combines the complex network methodology with spatial econometrics to disentangle the contributions of innovation endowments, innovation network flows, and innovation network positions to regional innovation growth, as well as their spatial spillover effects. The primary findings suggest that regional innovation growth results from the networked agglomeration economies, which is shaped by the interactions between agglomeration factors and network factors. Specifically, agglomeration factors play a fundamental role in regional innovation growth. In contrast, network factors, such as the network flows and network positions, may contribute to new path creation by promoting access to external innovation resources. Additionally, the institutional factors show multiplexity in fostering regional innovation patterns. Such findings indicate that the YRD region should shift the innovation growth pattern from competitive involution to mutually beneficial cooperation to reduce regional disparities. In this regard, the institutional capacity of organizing network flows and fostering reciprocal inter-city partnerships has become increasingly critical for promoting sustainable innovation and regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the knowledge economy era, science and technology (S&T) resources are getting more and more important in shaping regional competiveness and building regional innovation capacity. As such, the spatial distribution of S&T resources is a key to understanding regional development and disparities. By designing an input-output indicator system, this paper develops an evaluation model to examine the spatial distribution of S&T resources in China and assess their spatial efficiency. Moreover, the paper tries to explain spatial differences in the efficiency of S&T resources in China. Major findings are: 1) the input and output of S&T resources in China shows a clear T-shaped spatial structure, i.e., concentrated mainly in the coastal region and along the Changjiang (Yangtze) River; 2) the efficiency of S&T resources in China displays strong spatial disparities, with the level of efficiency descending from the east to the west while high efficiency appearing in only several clusters; 3) the utilization rates of S&T resources in most provinces are quite low, resulting in low efficiency of S&T resources allocation. The paper suggests that the utilization rate of S&T resources should be raised and the commercialization of S&T outputs should be enhanced to improve the efficiency of S&T resources in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests and the dynamic changes play decisive roles in soil erosion prevention, biodiversity conservation and climate warming mitigation, and are crucial for China to achieve carbon neutrality because of the ability for carbon uptake. China's forests experienced a substantial change over the past century, primarily since the forest conservation and restoration programs were implemented. In this paper, the progress of China's forest change and the similarities and differences of the spatio-temporal patterns from multi-dimension coupling with ground surveys and satellite observations were reviewed comprehensively, and the drivers of forest change were discussed. Our review reported that: 1) China's forests experienced an extensive forest gain/restoration in vegetation greenness, forest cover, and aboveground biomass since the 1970s. 2) Changes in various forest parameters suggested distinctive spatiotemporal patterns in China. Consistent hotspots of forest gain clustered in the Loess Plateau and the southwestern China from most studies, while controversial conclusions about forest loss/degradation were found in the spatial distribution. 3) The geographic discrepancy of forest changes may be related to climate change, human activities, and forest disturbances. Variations in forest dynamics are prerequisites to exploring the effects of natural conditions and forestry policies on forest cover, and strengthening understanding of the carbon cycle. These findings can provide valuable insights for various ecological services in further studies and a scientific basis for forest management and policy-making in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social assistance is the last safety net in the social security system and plays a vital role in poverty alleviation in countries around the world. Promoting the equal financial assistance is meaningful to achieve equalization of social assistance. Based on the provincial panel data from 2002 to 2017, this paper analyzes the dynamic characteristics and main influencing factors of the equity of social assistance in China, using the Theil index and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The results suggest that the level of per capita social assistance expenditure (PSAE) in China keeps increasing year by year, but the changes in different regions and provinces are quite different. These changes not only significantly changed the spatial pattern of PSAE in China, but also greatly improved its spatial coupling with the deeply impoverished areas. Further analysis shows that the regional inequality of PSAE between provinces is obvious during the study period, and the inter-regional inequality is significantly higher than the intra-regional inequality. This makes inter-regional inequality become the main source of the regional inequality of PSAE in China for a long time. According to GWR results, there is obvious spatiotemporal heterogeneity in the influence intensity and direction of the per capita financial revenue, urbanization rate, urban unemployment rate, natural disaster-affected area, and transfer payment intensity on the PSAE. The urbanization rate and per capita financial revenue are the main driving factors of PSAE, and the impact intensity of per capita financial revenue tends to strengthen. The remaining three factors have a positive effect on PSAE, but the effect intensity is not high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid urban development in China in the last two decades, the three-dimensional (3D) characteristic has been the main feature of urban morphology. However, the vast majority of researches of urban growth have focused on the planar area (two-dimensional (2D)) expansion. Few studies have been conducted from a 3D perspective. In this paper, the 3D urban expansion of the Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China from 2003 to 2012 was evaluated based on Geographical Information System (GIS) tools and high-resolution remote sensing images. Four indices, namely weighted average height of buildings, volume of buildings, 3D expansion intensity and 3D fractal dimension are used to quantify the 3D urban expansion. The weighted average height of buildings and the volume of buildings are used to illustrate the temporal change of the 3D urban morphology, while the other two indices are used to calculate the expansion intensity and the fractal dimension of the 3D urban morphology. The results show that the spatial distribution of the high-rise buildings in Yangzhou has significantly spread and the utilization of the 3D space of Yangzhou has become more efficient and intensive. The methods proposed in this paper laid a foundation for a wide range of study of 3D urban morphology changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing vacancy rate (HVR) is an important index in assessing the healthiness of residential real estate market. In China, it is hardly to take advantage of the basic data of real estate information due to the opaque of those data. In this paper, the HVR is estimated to two scales. At the grid level, urban area ratio was calculated by nighttime images after eliminating outliers of nighttime images and night light intensity of non-residential pixels in mixed pixels by a proposed modified optimal threshold method, and built-up areas in each pixel were extracted from the land-cover data. Then, the HVR is calculated by comparing the light intensity of specific grid with the light intensity of full occupancy rate regions. At the administrative scale, the GCI ('ghost city' index) is constructed by calculating the ratio of the total light radiation intensity of a city to the total construction land area of the city. The overall spatial differentiation pattern of the vacant houses in the national prefecture level administrative regions is analyzed. The following conclusions were drawn: vacant housing is rare in certain eastern coastal cities and regions in China with relatively fast economic development. Cities based on exhausted resources, some mountainous cities, and cities with relatively backward economic development more typically showed high levels of housing vacancy. The GCI of prefecture-level administrative units gradually declined from north to south, whereas the east-west distribution showed a parabolic shape. As city level decreased, the GCI registered a gradual upward trend. China's urban housing vacancy can be divided into five categories: industry or resources driven, government planned, epitaxy expansionary, environmental constraint and speculative activate by combining the spatial distribution of housing vacancy with the factors of natural environment, social economic development level, and population density into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development zones have been an important spatial approach to promoting economic development since China's reform and opening-up. They have also been major contributors to the processes of China's industrialization and urbanization. Along with improvements in the worldwide industrial division of labor and the gradual implementation of China's development zones' Go Global strategy, it is necessary for Africa, a hot spot of global industrialization in recent years, to learn from China's development zone model. By attracting China's capital, technology and enterprises to Africa via Sino-African co-built development zones, a pattern of high complementarity and mutual development between China and Africa can be formed which does favor further improvement of the global industrial division of labor. In order to study the applicability and prospect of China's development zone model in Africa as per the above-mentioned international situation, this paper first sorts out the development course of China's development zones and discusses their roles in China's industrialization and urbanization. Subsequently, this paper analyzes the status quo of industrial development in Africa as a whole and the differences in industrial development between China and Africa, aiming to justify the timing of industrial transfer from China to Africa by constructing Sino-African co-built development zones. Lastly, this paper analyzes the current situation of six Sino-African co-built development zones by focusing on their operation modes, industry types and investment promotion models. In the authors' view, Sino-African co-built development zones can function as a new window of China-African cooperation, a new carrier of African industrialization, and a new engine of global industrial restructuring. China should adhere to the general principles of 'Sino-African Integration, Multi-Cooperation, Mutual Benefit, Scientific Location, Systematic Planning, Cluster Growth and Open Development' in the planning and construction of development zones in Africa, effectively promoting Africa as the very important part of the global industry system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the interprovincial panel data of 2000-2014, this paper carries out an empirical analysis on the relationship between energy abundance and economic growth to test the theoretical hypothesis of 'resource curse' and explore its transmission mechanism for China and its three regions. The results show that, at the national level, positive correlation is present between energy abundance and economic growth, proving that the 'resource curse' phenomenon does not exist in China as a whole. Moreover, material capital input, human capital input and the level of opening to the outside world could promote economic growth, while technology innovation input may hinder economic growth. As seen by region, a positive correlation also exists between the energy abundance and economic growth in the eastern and western regions, and there is no 'resource curse' phenomenon either. In all three regions, the human capital input could promote economic growth. Material capital input could promote economic growth in the eastern but hinder economic growth in the western region; the level of opening to the outside world could promote economic growth in the eastern region. It is known through further survey and analysis on the transmission mechanism of resource curse that, at the national level, material capital input, human capital input, and the level of opening to the outside world present positive correlation with energy abundance, indicating that energy development becomes an important transmission factor by strengthening material capital input and human capital input and raising the level of opening to the outside world. However, technology innovation input presents negative correlation with energy development. As seen by region, both the material capital input and human capital input present positive correlation with energy development strength in the three regions. Similar as the eastern region, the level of opening to the outside world presents positive correlation with energy industry development in the middle and western regions; however, the energy development presents negative correlation with technology input level in the western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban shrinkage is a global phenomenon, and it will coexist with urban growth for many years. At the same time, the network connection between cities continuously improved due to the construction of the transportation and information networks. However, the relationship between urban network externalities and urban population growth/shrinkage remains unclear. Therefore, based on high-speed railway (HSR) flow data, a spatial econometric model is used to explore the mechanism behind urban population growth and shrinkage from the perspective of network externalities in China. The results indicate that: 1) the urban network experiences a certain clubbing effect. Growing cities that are strongly connected are concentrated along China's main railway lines and the southeastern coastal areas, while shrinking cities that are weakly connected are distributed at the periphery of the network. 2) Moreover, the network externality disregards spatial distance and together with the agglomeration externality influences the growth and shrinking of cities. 3) Urban economic development still promotes the development of Chinese cities. However, the improvement of the urban economy has a negative cross-regional spillover effect on neighboring cities due to urban competition. 4) Lastly, Local spillovers of urban network externalities are positive, while cross-regional ones are negative. Consequently, the government needs to promote the construction of multi-dimensional network connections between cities to promote cities' sustainable development. This study reveals the relationship between urban network externalities and urban development, enriches the theories of network externalities and urban growth/shrinkage, and provides a reference for regional coordinated development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 21st century, economic interdependence between countries has gradually become an important source of state power. Globalization and the rise of China's economy have had a significant impact on other economies around the world. China's economic influence is becoming more and more important. On the basis of the sensitivity dependence and vulnerability dependence of asymmetric interdependence theory, the economic spillover between countries is selected to construct a quantitative model to measure economic power. This paper analyzes the evolution of China's economic power both in time and space from 2000 to 2014. Four conclusions were drawn from the study: 1) The spatial spillover effect of China's economy on other countries has been continuously growing since the beginning of the 21st century, which has brought about the rapid increase in China's economic power; 2) China's economic power has been significantly strengthened both in intensity and scope, having expanded from the surrounding countries to the whole world. In 2014, China had a high amount of economic power over 18 countries from the 41 main countries in the world, compared to 2 in 2000; 3) China's power in terms of sensitivity dependence takes on an evolutionary trend from point distribution to flaky growth, and it shows a process 'from point to line' from the aspect of spatial diffusion. Furthermore, China's power in terms of vulnerability dependence shows a trend that extends from the surrounding countries to European and South American countries; 4) comprehensively, China's power in terms of vulnerability dependence is higher than that of sensitivity dependence, and the spatial distribution pattern demonstrates a process from centralization to decentralization from 2000 to 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the relationship among government, market driving forces, distribution orientation of banking industry, service opportunity equality and spatial patterns, this paper proposes that it is distribution orientation that lead to the formation and evolution of spatial pattern of banking industry. The difference of the distribution orientation leads to the separation of the spatial pattern of banking industry, and the change of the distribution orientation leads to the change of spatial pattern. The degree of spatial pattern change is subject to the degree of change of distribution orientation, and the scale of bank resources in the regions, which supports the distribution orientation variation. Based on these theoretical frameworks, some indicators were designed to analyze the pattern change of China's banking industry and its effects since 1995 under the change of the distribution orientation. This paper finds that the orientation of economic benefit maximization driven by market causes the banking industry to concentrate in economically developed regions. The government, which does not follow the orientation of economic benefit maximization, plays a role of stabilizer. Since the bank branches in the regions with the greatest change in bank branch distribution are too few, and regions with the greatest change in bank loan allocation are the regions with lots of loans, the pattern change of the banking industry in physical form is not as notable as that in economic form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 of ESR and natural geographical factors are limited. This paper presents a new cases-depended model to establish reference ESR values with natural geographical factors and location using case-based reasoning (CBR) since knowledge domain of ESR and geographical factors is weak. Overall 224 local normal ESR values of China that calculated from 13 623 samples were obtained, and the corresponding natural geographical factors and location that include altitude, sunshine hours, relative humidity, temperature, precipitation, annual temperature range and annual average wind speed were obtained from the National Geomatics Center of China. CBR was used to predict the unseen local reference ESR values with cases. The average absolute deviation (AAD), mean square error (MSE), prediction accuracy (PA), and Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between the observed and estimated data of proposed model is 33.07%, 9.02, 66.93% and 0.78, which are better than those of ANN and MLR model. The results show that the proposed model provides higher prediction accuracy than those of the artificial neural network and multiple linear regression models. The predicted values are very close to the observed values. Model results show significant agreement of cases data. Consequently, the model is used to predict the unseen local reference ESR with natural geographical factors and location. In spatial, the highest ESR reference areas are distributed in the southern-western district of China that includes Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces, and the reference ESR values are greater than 23 mm/60 min. The higher ESR reference values are distributed in the middle part and northern-eastern of China which include Hubei, Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, and the reference ESR values are greater than 18 mm/60 min. The lowest ESR reference values are distributed in the northern-western of China that includes Tibet and Xinjiang, and the reference ESR values are lower than 5 mm/60 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of population and urbanization and the progress of lighting technology, the influence of artificial light sources has increased. In this context, the problem of light pollution has attracted wide attention. Previous studies have revealed that light pollution can affect biological living environments, human physical and mental health, astronomical observations and many other aspects. Therefore, organizations internationally have begun to advocate for measures to prevent light pollution, many of which are recognized by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). In addition to improving public awareness, legal protections, technical treatments and other means, the construction of Dark Sky Reserves (DSR) has proven to be an effective preventive measure. So far, as a pioneer practice in this field, the IDA has identified 11 DSRs worldwide. Based on the DA requirements for DSRs, this paper utilizes NPP-VIIRS nighttime light data and other multi-source spatial data to analyze possible DSR sites in China. The land of China was divided into more than ten thousand 30 km × 30 km fishnets, and constraint and suitable conditions were designated, respectively, as light and cloud conditions, and scale, traffic and attractiveness conditions. Using a multiple criteria evaluation, 1443 fishnets were finally selected as most suitable sites for the construction of DSRs. Results found that less than 25% of China is not subject to light pollution, and less than 13% is suitable for DSR construction, primarily in western and northern areas, including Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu and Inner Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of 'the Belt and Road' initiative, the economic cooperation has great potential between China and Russia. The railway accessibility has an important influence on the economic connections of cities along the railway line. This paper studied the Sino-Russian transnational economic connection based on the railway class accessibility along Trans-Siberian railway (the transnational China railway branch line). The results are as following. First, the railway accessibility of the Chinese nodes is stronger than that of the Russian nodes, which in general displays a tendency of space attenuation from China to the Sino-Russian border, then to Russia. Spatially, the railway accessibility within the study area shows a 'High East, Low West' and 'High South, Low North' spatial pattern. The railway accessibility of the nodes, which are located at the beginning and end of the railway line, is weaker than those nodes located in the middle of the line. Second, the railway accessibility and external economic connection intensity summation of the nodes show a positive relationship along the railway line. The economic connection intensity summation of different nodes presents obvious regional differentiation. Finally, as economic connection network has evolved, the small world effect of Sino-Russian railway economic connection network becomes strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resources and environment carrying capacity is central to not only regional sustainable development but also major function- oriented zoning. This paper presents an evaluation index system for resources and environment carrying capacity based on four aspects of carrying capacity (i.e., water resources, land resources, the environment, and ecosystems) by using a square deviation decision- making method, and on the basis of above effort evaluates the resources and environment carrying capacity across 31 provincial regions in China (not including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions of China). In addition, this paper evaluates the current state of socio-economic development, and analyzes the spatial distribution of resources and environment pressure. The results showed that distinct spatial differences in resources and environment carrying capacity and pressure across provincial regions. Resources and environment pressure is affected by both comprehensive resources and environment carrying capacity and socio-economic development. Regions subjected to lower degrees of resources and environment pressure will be restricted by resources and environmental problems through future courses of development owing to excessively low carrying capacities. By contrast, regions with higher comprehensive resources and environment carrying capacity will be subjected to excessively high levels of resources and environment pressure because of rapid socio-economic development. Both of resources and environment carrying capacity and pressure must therefore be considered in the allocation of country-binding targets to provincial regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The middle class in metropolitan Chinese cities has become an important social group. With the rapid development of urbanization and constant advancement of suburbanization, the middle class has increasingly come to influence city traffic. Research into middle-class commuting activities thus has practical significance for improving traffic congestion and reducing the commuting burden in metropolitan cities. Based on a dataset formed by 816 completed surveys, this paper analyzes the commuting mode, time and distance of middle-class residents in Guangzhou City using the descriptive statistical method. The results indicate that private cars are the main commuting mode, followed by public transport. Meanwhile, middle-class residents mainly undertake medium-short time and medium- short distance commuting. The study subsequently uses multilevel logistic regression and multiple linear regression models to analyze the factors that influence commuting mode choice, time and distance. The gender, age, number of family cars, housing source and jobs-housing balance are the most important factors influencing commuting mode choice; housing, population density, jobs-housing balance and commuting mode significantly affect commuting time; and transport accessibility, jobs-housing balance and commuting mode are the notable factors affecting commuting distance. Finally, this paper analyzes what is affecting the commuting activities of middle-class residents and determines the differences in commuting activity characteristics and influence factors between middle-class and ordinary residents. Policy suggestions to improve urban planning and urban management are also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary object of this paper is to examine the spatial-temporal pattern evolution of manufacturing geographical agglomeration of the old industrial base. Industrial spatial agglomeration index and concentration ratio are used in this paper. Multiple linear regression models are also applied to try to explore the internal driving mechanisms on manufacturing geographical agglomeration. The results show that: 1) the manufacturing agglomeration degree of Jilin Province is increasing gradually. The spatial polarization structure is visible; and the central region is the agglomeration area, in addition, the manufacturing industries of Changchun Proper present a trend of dispersion; 2) the structure of manufacturing industries has changed, and the concentration ratio of labor-intensive manufacturing industry is declining, while the proportions of technology-intensive and capital-intensive manufacturing industry are relatively rising; 3) marketing level, location accessibility, labor resources, capital, science and technology innovation capability, scale economy and the level of globalization affect manufacturing agglomeration with different degree. There are significant differences of the effects about employment, technology, the quality of residents and the export-oriented market on the industrial concentration ratio; 4) in the future, the impact of policy and institution, export-oriented market and quality of resident on manufacturing geographical agglomeration pattern will be more profound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing globalization of the Chinese economy has been enabled by both Chinese financial institutions operating globally as well as international firms operating within China. In geographical terms, this has been organized through a number of strategic cities serving as gateways for the exchange of financial functions, products and practices between China and the global economy. Drawing on location data of financial service firms in China listed on stock exchanges in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong, this paper shows that Chinese financial firms are expanding globally and how Chinese financial centers are positioned and connected in the urban networks shaped by these financial service firms. It is found that Hong Kong, China, holds strategic positions in the integration of Chinese cities into global financial center networks, and that establishing a foothold in global financial centers such as New York and London has been a priority for Chinese financial institutions. The increasing capital flows directed by Chinese financial institutions suggests a shifting global financial geography, with numerous Chinese cities playing increasingly important roles within global financial center networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the sizable economic growth of China in recent years, this paper uses the most recent data gathering of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network to update and supplement earlier research on the shifting global connectivity of Chinese cities. The update consists of an evaluation of the connectivity of Chinese cities in 2016, the supplement of an analysis of the changing position of Chinese cities in the world city network between 2010 and 2016. To this end, we build on a specification of the world city network as an 'interlocking network' in which producer services firms play the crucial role in city network formation. Information about the presence of leading producer services firms in cities in 2010 and 2016 is used as the input to a bipartite network projection algorithm in order to measure cities' network connectivity. The first set of results discusses the geographies of urban connectivity in the world city network in 2016. The second set of results discusses standardized measures of change to reveal the major dimensions of the transformations between 2010 and 2016. We find that, with the exception of Hong Kong, Macau and Kaohsiung of Taiwan, all Chinese cities record connectivity gains. This wholesale rise in connectivity is nonetheless geographically uneven, with above all Beijing, Chengdu/Chongqing and Changsha/Wuhan becoming more connected. We conclude that the wholesale rise of Chinese cities in the world city network and their changing trajectories in the post-crisis era are embedded in shifting external and internal political economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor migration to urban centers is a common phenomenon in the Panxi region of the southwestern mountainous region of China, mainly owing to inadequate livelihood capital in rural areas. Numerous studies have been conducted to explore the relationship between labor migration and its causes, such as individual and family characteristics, but few studies have focused on livelihood capital. This paper examines the impact factors on labor migration employment location selection and duration from a household livelihood capital perspective. A case study of 279 households from 10 villages in the area was carried out in February 2016. We used both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the data. On the basis of the 279 questionnaires, the proportion of households with non-labor migration is 48.4%, whereas households with labor migration within a local city and migration across regions account for 28.7% and 22.9%, respectively. Social, financial, and human capitals are the primary factors that influence migrants’ employment location choice positively. Among them, social capital has a significant impact on both migration within a local city and across regions; each of the regression coefficients is 1.111 and 1.183. Social, human, and financial capitals also have a positive impact on the duration of labor migration, and similarly, social capital is the highest coefficient with 2.489. However, physical capital only partly impacts labor migration across regions, whereas the impact of labor migration within a local city, and the duration, are not significant. Furthermore, the impact of household natural capital on migration space and time are all negative relationships, especially for labor migration across the regions and duration, with coefficient scores of 4.836 and 3.450, respectively. That is to say, a laborer is inclined to migrate within a local city for a short term, or not migrate at all, if natural capital is abundant. Our analysis results show that household livelihood capital has a strong spatio-temporal impact on labor migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hallmark of development in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) of East China has been sprawling urbanization. However, air pollution is a significant problem in these urban areas. In this paper, we investigated and analyzed the air pollution index (API) in four cities (Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Ningbo) in the YRD from 2001 to 2012. We attempted to empirically examine the relationship between meteorological factors and air quality in the urban areas of the YRD. According to the monitoring data, the API in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou slightly declined and that in Ningbo increased over the study period. We analyzed the inter-annual, seasonal, and monthly variations of API, from which we found that the air quality had different temporal changes in the four cities. It was indicated that air quality was poor in winter and spring and best in summer. Furthermore, different weather conditions affected air quality level. The wind direction was considered as an important and influential factor to air pollution, which has an impact on the accumulating or cleaning processes of pollutants. The air quality was influenced by the different wind directions that varied with seasons and cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compartmentalizes regional land use of rural settlements in China by employing a hierarchical clustering method. The statistic data are sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC) and the data of land use change from the Ministry of Land and Resources of China (MLRC). The population of rural settlement decreases from the southeast to the northwest of China and the density of rural settlement decreases from the east to the west of China. Land-use scale of rural settlement, the proportion of one-storey houses and the average household area decrease from the north to the south of China. The ratio of area of cultivated land to rural settlement is high in the northeast and southwest of China but low in the southeast of China. The land use regionalization of rural settlement can be divided into four regions, namely: the northern region of China, Qinghai-Tibet, Yunnan-Guizhou, and the middle and eastern region of China. The northern region of China and the middle and eastern region of China can be further divided into nine sub-regions: Xinjiang, Northeast China, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, North China, the south of the Changjiang (Yantze) River and Sichuan Basin, Jiangsu-Shanghai, South China, the Loess Plateau, and Guangxi. In consideration of the significant regional differences, it is proposed that different policies should be implemented regarding the utilization and management of rural settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As responses to metropolitan suburbanization and rural urbanization, the formation and evolution of urban fringes should be understood against the background of overall economic development and spatial reconstruction of entire metropolises. At the same time, however, endogenous interactions between industrial structure and spatial patterns of non-agricultural activities are also worthy of scholarly attention. Since the 1980s, studies on urban fringes in China have been restricted by the lack of micro-level data. This paper investigates the spatial expansion and structural evolution of the urban fringe by taking the case of Beijing and uses systematic firm-level data in 1996 and 2001 from the National Census of Basic Units. The diversity of distribution patterns across industrial sectors brings about two interrelated results. On the one hand, structural adjustment of non-agricultural industries promotes the expansion and spatial evolution of the urban fringe. On the other hand, the stability and dynamics of industrial structure coexist in the moving urban fringe. This study also reveals that the outward-moving urban fringe is the optimal location for manufacturing, especially heavy manufacturing, as well as traditional producer and consumer services. However, industries with spatial stickiness such as tourism and sports have not moved with the fringe. Most advanced services remain concentrated in the city center. The authors argue that it is essential for understanding and managing urban fringes to take into account spatial evolution and industrial structural adjustment together with their interaction with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Road to Rio+20 is the journey of countries in the world pursuing the sustainable development. As the first country to release the national Agenda 21, China's experience and lessons are of great significance for both China itself and other countries. The paper reviews the progress made and problems remained in pursuing the sustainable development in China with regard to policy formulation, institutional arrangements, planning and management. In the past five years, the mandatory targets-driven approach, which focused on energy efficiency and key pollutants reduction, played a very important role and made China comprehensive outcomes for sustainability. In order to achieve the targets, China adopted an integrated policy package including legal, administrative, economic and technology instruments. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), China will continue and strengthen the approach above and mainstream the transformation of economic development pattern through realizing the idea of green and low-carbon development. By summarizing policy trends in the world, the paper points out two directions, i.e., integration approach and taking prioritized and concrete actions for a sustainable future beyond 2012. The paper also presents policy approaches and recommendations for sustainable development in the next 10 years in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the interactive relationship between the agglomeration of urban elements and the evolution of eco-environmental pressure. We build an index system for evaluating the agglomeration of urban elements and eco-environmental pressure. Using the entropy method and response intensity model, we analyze how urban elements agglomeration influenced eco-environmental pressure in Changchun from 1990 to 2012, eliciting the changing features and influential factors. Ultimately, we conclude there is a significant interactive relationship between the agglomeration of urban elements and the evolution of eco-environmental pressure in Changchun. This is inferred from the degree of this agglomeration in Changchun having increased since 1990, with the degree of eco-environmental pressure first decreasing and then increasing. Alongside this, the impact of urban elements agglomeration on eco-environmental pressure has changed from negative to positive. The main reasons behind this shift are arguably the rapid growth of urban investment and ongoing urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The types of operation play a key role in facilitating tourism consumption and economic development in a tourism destination. By adopting evolutionary economic geography theory, the paper analyzes the types of operation in West Lake Scenic Area from 1978 to 2013. First, an evolution process consisting of four stages is underpinned, and they are: the new establishment stage, the preliminary development stage, the speedup development stage, and the stabilized maturity stage. Specifically, the distinct characteristics associated with operation types are compared and evaluated at different stages throughout the process. The evolution trees are introduced to scrutinize types of operation development. The results of evolution trees demonstrate the substantial increase in both numbers and types. Second, by applying GIS spatial analysis, the paper also analyzes the spatial evolution characteristics on the types of operation, and the results unveil the co-existence of centripetal and centrifugal forces: the processes of spatial agglomeration and spatial dispersion. More specifically, we recognize the spatial process includes the emergence of node and concentration (1978-1995), the sparse distribution and intensity reduction (1996-2002), the patchy distribution and spatial agglomeration intensification (2003-2008), the dispersed distribution and core area agglomeration (2009-2013). Lastly, path dependence on resource endowment, government and market innovation, knowledge learning and spillover can reasonably explain the types of operation evolution. In conclusion, the evolutionary economic geography theories provide new theoretical and empirical perspectives for tourism policy analysis. At the same time, our comprehensive evidences impart more comprehensive insights and offer useful managerial and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restructuring of old industrial areas has been receiving much attention in regional development studies both in industrialized and emerging economies. Although ample Chinese-speaking studies have been published on the topic, most of them suffer from paying too little attention to dynamic multi-scalar interactions between firms, institutions, policies and places, as well as a too strong focus on individual cases. They also mostly disregard internationally recognized concepts and theories in the field. Based on these internationally recognized modern concepts, this paper therefore puts forward some potential avenues for future research on the evolution of old industrial areas in China, which should overcome existing deficits in the Chinese-speaking literature. It suggests that some evolutionary economic geography concepts such as path dependence, lock-in, path creation, relatedness, as well as multi-scalar institutional and leadership approaches have useful potentials to better understand the evolutionary processes and mechanisms of old industrial areas in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China′s economy and transport infrastructure have both experienced rapid development since 1978, and especially since 1990. Today, China is the second-largest economic entity in terms of GDP and has the largest high-speed rail (HSR) network and the second-largest expressway network in the world. This paper explores the relationship between accessibility and economic growth in China from 1990 to 2010. In the study, the basic research units include 333 prefecture-level cities and four municipalities. We explore a bivariate analysis framework of accessibility and economic growth, and their increase rates, to examine this relationship using long-term panel data. The results indicate that, first, accessibility and economic growth show a significant positive relationship using both cross-section and panel data, while the increase rate in accessibility and GDP indicate no significant relationship using cross-section data and a poor significant relationship using panel data. Second, the distributions of local advantage are uneven. Cities with low local advantage with respect to accessibility and GDP are mainly located in China′s eastern coastal region or the provincial capitals, while those with low local advantage in terms of their increase rates are located in the western region. Third, as China′s economic growth and transport networks have evolved, the distribution of local advantage shows little change in terms of accessibility and GDP, but a greater change in terms of their increase rates, which is largely influenced by the distribution of expressway and HSR networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonious regional development poses difficult problems, especially in so far as the harmonious regional development of ecological resources is concerned. China has explored several eco-compensation models, and in each province eco-compensation has different characteristics. These methods have had significant impacts. The aim of this paper is first to examine the meaning of ecocompensation and to present a framework for analyzing it. Next the development of eco-compensation in China is examined. Finally, four typical models of eco-compensation are compared: the government financial transfer payment compensation model; the ecological resource exploiters′ payment compensation model; the ecological destruction compensation model; and the ecological resource tax collection compensation model. Each model has its own unique feature and potential to contribute to harmonious regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to investigate the urban spatial patterns of Hubei Province and its evolution from three different perspectives: urban nodes, urban connections and urban clusters. The research adopts nighttime light imagery of cities in Hubei Province, the viewpoint of ′point-axis-area′ in the ′point-axis system′ theory, and employs light index model, gravity model and social network analysis. The findings are as follows: 1) In terms of urban nodes, the urbanization process of Hubei has been carried out mainly on the basis of external expansion rather than internal increasing. The polarization trend of urban connection network is strengthening. 2) As for urban connections, the estimation of urban connections using light index model is capable of containing various actual flow, and the connections are getting increasingly closer. 3) In regard to urban groups, seven urban groups of varying sizes have formed. On that basis, three stable and relatively independent urban groups as the centers, namely Wuchang, Yichang and Xiangyang emerge as well. But the structures of ′Wuhan Metropolitan Area′, ′Yichang-Jingzhou-Jingmen City Group′ and ′Xiangyang-Shiyen-Suizhou City Group′, which are defined by local development strategy in Hubei Province, are different from the above three urban groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services valuation seeks to increase the social relevance of ecosystem characteristics, the underlying biological mechanisms that support services, by making the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being explicit. Economic valuation can help management by clarifying the full range of benefits and costs of proposed management actions. In the past two decades, economic valuation of wetland ecosystem services has become one of the most significant scientific priorities for wetland protection. In this paper, we provide an overview of ecosystem services, and summarize the main interdisciplinary approaches to measure and value wetland ecosystem services. We identified four main methodological gaps preventing progress on wetland valuation of ecosystem services in China, which are: 1) confusion on terminology like intermediate and final ecosystem services, 2) lack of ecological production functions to link ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services, 3) static valuation making it difficult to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, and 4) lack of clear guidance on relating ecological compensation programs to conservation targets. Overcoming these gaps is important to inform wetland compensation mechanisms and conservation policies. We propose future research on wetland ecosystem services in China should be focused on: 1) defining final ecosystem services based on beneficiary preferences and underlying biophysical mechanisms, 2) establishing wetland monitoring programs at specific sites to collect data on final ecosystem service indicators and ecosystem characteristic metrics to create ecological production functions for economic valuation and rescaling techniques, and 3) incorporating wetland ecosystem service values into decision-making processes to inform wetland management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the essential urban open spaces, lakes usually contribute immensely to the quality of residents′ daily lives. Different from hedonic approach employed in existing researches on urban open spaces in China, this paper integrates housing price surface with road density to analyze the spatial characteristics in proximity to urban lakes in Wuhan City, China. With the expansion of Wuhan City, urban lakes became polluted, they shrunk or even disappeared, leading to unfavorable conditions for sustainable development of the city. To better understand the spatial relationship between the city and lakes, we classify the urban lakes in Wuhan central area into ′lakes in the urban center′ and ′lakes in urban fringe′. Based on housing price surface we explore the spatial characteristics in proximity to different lakes and differences between the lakes. We also use Geographic Information System (GIS) tool to calculate road density as a supplementary indicator to reflect the accessibility in proximity to urban lakes. The results indicate that relative independence exists between different towns, and the spatial characteristics are different depending on scales and locations. In most of cases, the road density is lower where closer to the lakeshore while the housing price exhibits an opposite pattern. We conclude that city governments and urban planners should give more considerations to these spatial differences, somewhere should be better planned and protected as an important waterfront and somewhere the control of unreasonable real estate development nearby should be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While urbanization has accelerated, the rural population in China has started decreasing in recent years. However, the expansion of rural settlement has not been sufficiently curbed. The questions of why this has happened and who has driven the land-use change (LUC) of rural settlement in China have aroused great interests among researchers. In this paper, it is suggested that population is not always a positive driving force for the LUC of rural settlement in China. Furthermore, socio-economic driving forces other than urbanization, population and industrialization are analyzed. On a national scale, the major driving forces are the per-capita rural housing area and the cultivated land area. On a regional scale, the main driving forces in the eastern China are the house-building capacity of rural households and the per-capita rural housing area; while in the central China, the main driving forces are rural housing investment, the proportion of primary industry employees in the rural working population, and the cultivated land area. For the western China, the main driving forces are rural register population and cultivated land area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of multinational enterprises (MNEs) traditionally originate from developed countries. In the last ten years, however, there has been dramatic growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) from China. It is a comparatively new phenomenon that challenges the classic FDI theories. In this paper, we review the pros and cons of two important theories, known as the Ownership-Location-Internalization (OLI) model and Linkage-Leverage-Learning (LLL) model, and use the statistical data and company case studies from China to test the plausibility of these two models. We believe that neither of them suits totally: the OLI model is quite useful for understanding FDI from China to developing economies, while the LLL model is more powerful for explaining the FDI to developed economies. We argue that the companies from China attain a very advantageous position as intermediates in the global economy. They may catch up with the first movers if they integrate OLI-led and LLL-led FDI within one firm. This combination can bring together the most advanced knowledge acquired in developed economies with the knowledge about adaptation needs and the needs for cost reduction in production as expressed in developing economies. It may also accelerate the knowledge transfer globally. We thus fill a gap in research into the geographical pattern of Chinese FDI and offer a deeper understanding of the internationalization of Chinese MNEs and revolving knowledge transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metropolitan cities in China are commonly confronted with unresolved traffic congestion issues, primarily due to rapidly increasing traffic demand. Group disparity between commuting mode choice and its spatial distribution on road networks has enabled us to examine the factors that give rise to the discrepancies and the fundamental spatial causes of traffic congestion. In recent years, micro-perspective, individual, and behavior-based spatial analysis have mushroomed and been facilitated with effective tools such as temporal geographic information systems (T-GIS). It is difficult to study the interrelations between transport and space on the basis of commuting mode choice since the mode choice data are invisible in a specific space such as a particular road network. Therefore, in the field of transport, the classical origin destination (OD) four-stage model (FSM) is usually employed to calculate data when studying commuting mode choice. Based on the relative principles of T-GIS and the platform of ArcGIS, this paper considers Guangzhou as a case study and develops a spatio-temporal tool to examine the daily activities of residents. Meanwhile, the traffic volume distribution in rush hours, which was analyzed according to commuting modes and how they were reflected in the road network, was scrutinized with data extracted from travel diaries. Moreover, efforts were made to explain the relationship between traffic demand and urban spatial structure. Based on the investigation, this research indicates that traffic volumes in divergent groups and on the road networks is driven by: 1) the socio-economic characteristics of travelers; 2) a jobs-housing imbalance under suburbanization; 3) differences in the spatial supply of transport modes; 4) the remains of the Danwei (work unit) system and market development in China; and 5) the transition of urban spatial structure and other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microorganisms are nutritious resources for various soil fauna. Although soil fauna grazing affects microorganism composition and decomposition rate, the responses of soil fauna and leaf litter decomposition to added microorganism is little understood. In this study, in the coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest of Tahe County in the northern Da Hinggan Mountains, China, three sampling sites (each has an area of 10 m) were selected. The first two sites were sprinkled with 250 times (EM1) and 1000 times (EM2) diluted effective microorganism (EM) preparations evenly, and the third site was sprinkled with the same volume of water as a control site. The responses of soil fauna structure and leaf litter decomposition to EM treatment were conducted during three years. The results revealed that EM treatment resulted in significant increase of soil organic matter. The number of soil fauna in the EM1 and EM2 sites increased by 12.88% and 2.23% compared to the control site, and among them springtails and mites showed the highest increase. However, the groups of soil fauna in the EM1 and EM2 sites decreased by 6 and 9, respectively. And the changes in the diversity and evenness index were relatively complicated. EM treatment slowed the decomposition of broad-leaved litter, but accelerated the decomposition of coniferous litter. However, the decomposition rate of broad-leaved litter was still higher than that of coniferous litter. The results of this study suggested that the added microorganisms could help individual growth of soil fauna, and this method led to a change in the process of leaf litter decomposition. This paper did not analyze the activity of soil microorganisms, thus it is difficult to clearly explain the complex relationships among litter type, soil fauna and soil microorganisms. Further research on this subject is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is entering a critical and accelerating phase of urbanization. As one of the most urbanized regions in China, the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta has experienced dramatic urbanization and urban transformation. However, in the recent years, many changes have taken place in this region and there is limited attention to the regional urbanization path evolution, its problems and the way to solve these problems. Therefore, we should revisit the urbanization process in the Changjiang River Delta again. In this paper, we revisited urbanization paths of the Changjiang River Delta by data analysis, influence factors of urbanization by the Gray Relational Analysis, and major challenges to urbanization of the Changjiang River Delta by theoretical considerations. We found that the urbanization of the Changjiang River Delta had experienced several stages of large-scale spatial and urban system restructuring. Within the Changjiang River Delta, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangshu had experienced different urbanization path with local characteristics. But with their development model gradually converging, their urbanization model is also converging. We also found that the major influence factors affecting the Changjiang River Delta urbanization were dynamic change and urbanization was driven by different key factors in different socio-economic development stages. Meanwhile, the Changjiang River Delta urbanization is facing many problems such as existing institutional arrangements, including the hukou (household registration) system and others which can not meet the needs of current socio-economic development and urbanization. Therefore, it is imperative to promote institutional innovation and adopt a new urbanization development strategy for the sake of the orderly and sustainable urbanization development in the Changjiang River Delta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global economic downturn caused primarily by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis in 2007 engendered revenue loss of the multinational corporations. Existing studies have yet to depict the detrimental impacts on city's command and control functions induced by the sub-prime mortgage crisis together with its residual wave of global economic recession on the global spatial economy. Recent and previous studies have produced an 'instant history' of the global spatial economy before the global economic downturn undermines the global economy in late 2008. However, the waxes and wanes of major cities' command and control functions on the global economic arena before and after the outbreak of financial crisis and its associated geo-economic transitions are still poorly understood. This paper attempts to contribute a new set of customized data to update and fill in the gap in the literature with the investigation of the command and control functions of cities around the world from 2005 to 2009. Particular attentions are paid to the time-space relationship of the geo-economic transition that can capture the recent historical images of the command and control situation of different cities in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehending regional characteristics and influencing factors of China's inbound tourism economy is important to make effective policies that will help inbound tourism develop harmoniously and shrink regional disparity. This paper studied the regional disparity and convergence of China's inbound tourism economy during 1996-2008 with the methods of σ-convergence, club convergence and β-convergence. The results indicate that 1) inbound tourism receipts per capita (ITRPC) of the whole country, the eastern, central and western regions presented the rapid increasing trend; 2) ITRPC of the whole country was characterized by convergence; 3) the eastern region presented club convergence, but the central and western regions did not show this trend; 4) the star-hotel levels and investment in fixed assets for the tourism industry per capita had a same trend to growth rates of ITRPC, promoting inbound tourism development, and there was no difference among the 31 provinces (municipalities) in the mainland of China; 5) but the proportion of employed persons in the tourism industry accounting for total population and the proportion of the tertiary industry accounting for GDP had a reversal trend to growth rates of ITRPC, shrinking the provincial disparity in inbound tourism economy, and there were differences between the developed provinces and the developing provinces. Based on these analyses, we put forward some suggestions for the developing provinces to speed up inbound tourism economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]