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As it is an important industrial base in China, it is of great significance to improve the industrial carbon emission efficiency in the western region to promote the low-carbon sustainable development of the region. This paper selects the input–output panel data of 11 provinces in western China from 2010 to 2021, and adopts the three-stage DEA model to measure the industrial carbon emission efficiency in western China under a non-traditional geographic division at the overall and regional levels and analyze its influencing factors. The Dagum Gini coefficient, its decomposition method, and the kernel density estimation method are used to analyze the regional differences and dynamic evolution process of industrial carbon emission efficiency in the western region. The results of the study show that (1) after removing environmental and random factors, the industrial carbon emission efficiency in western China has been improved, but there are inter-regional differences, characterized by "the third region > the second region > the first region"; (2) the levels of green development, shared development, innovative development, and coordinated development have a positive impact on the improvement of industrial carbon emission efficiency in western China, while the level of industrialization has a relatively smaller influence, and economic development, government support, open development level, and energy consumption structure have not yet played a significant role; (3) the spatial differences in the efficiency of industrial carbon emissions in western China have generally increased during the sample period, with inter-regional differences being the main source; and (4) the industrial carbon emission efficiency in western China is characterized by overall improvements in time and space but with stage differences and multi-polarization of regional differences. This study has a certain reference value for improving industrial carbon emission efficiency in western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's highly complex world, urban security has become a focus of attention for people in various positions due to its enormous uncertainty. As an essential path towards urban safety, resilient development can effectively provide emergency management capability for cities when they are exposed to unknown risks. In this study, an evaluation-index system for urban-safety resilience was constructed from the perspective of sustainable urban development. The urban-safety-resilience evaluation model was established with the help of catastrophe theory to study and analyze urban-safety resilience. The corresponding spatial–temporal-evolution analysis used the geographic information system (GIS) and Moran index to evaluate the urban-security resilience of 10 regions in western China. Finally, it was concluded that (1) the urban-safety resilience of most regions in western China showed an increasing trend over time in 2017, 2019, and 2021; (2) the urban-safety resilience of Chongqing, Sichuan, and Shaanxi provinces is at a relatively high level compared to the western region overall; and (3) regions such as Ningxia and Gansu are disaster-prone, and urban infrastructure conditions are relatively backward. Therefore, urban planning and governance should be flexibly transformed to explore and apply appropriate urban-safety-resilience models, with sustainable development as the cornerstone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests are associated with countrywide ecological security, and there are significant differences in the forests of different regions. Based on the DPSIR model, 25 indicators were selected from five dimensions to determine the index system, and the entropy-weighted TOPSIS method and gray correlation were applied to determine the index of western China's forests. The spatial distribution map was used to observe the spatial changes of forests. The results show that first, Inner Mongolia (0.466) has the best forest ecological security status and Ningxia (0.124) has the worst forest resource status. Second, the first and most frequent correlation is the area of planted forests (I1). The last and most frequent correlation is sulfur dioxide emission (P2). Thirdly, Inner Mongolia and Szechwan belong to the high ecological safety–high economic level, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Tibet belong to the high ecological safety–low economic level, and Gansu and Guizhou belong to the low ecological safety–low economic level. The rest of the regions are classified in the low ecological security–high economic level. Fourth, the forest ecological security in western China has gradually become better, with the security index increasing from 0.417 to 0.469, with an average annual increase of 12.47%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-speed rail (HSR) is an important form of transportation that affects the economic development of the regional spatial structure. However, there is less discussion about the impact of economically underdeveloped regions and the rapid construction of HSR on the region. This study uses a spatial econometric model to explore whether a rapidly formed high-speed rail network with changes in the network structure can bring economic effects based on the spatio-temporal panel data on high-speed rail construction and economic development in western China from 2015 to 2020. First, data of the daily departures between high-speed rail cities were used to analyze the western high-speed rail network's spatial and temporal evolution characteristics. Second, we analyzed the changes in the centrality, external and internal connectivity, and transfer potential of the economic gap of the western HSR network. Finally, we analyzed the different economic effects of the HSR network structure by combining the Cobb–Douglas production function with the spatial econometric model. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The HSR network in western China is dense at the intra-provincial HSR network; then it expands along the cross-provincial region; and is gradually embedded in the national HSR network, forming a figure-8-shaped spatial structure. (2) In the rapid expansion and densification of the HSR network in western China, connectivity takes precedence, and dominance and control are then increased. The external connectivity of the western HSR city network develops first and shows fluctuating growth, while the internal connectivity improves relatively slowly. (3) The connectivity, convenience of transit, transshipment capacity, and internal and external connection structure of the HSR network all contribute to the economic development of western cities. The transfer potential of economic gaps is detrimental to their economic development but has a positive effect on adjacent cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the seismic events (>ML 2.0 earthquake motion records recorded by China earthquake net stations) in Western China are calculated and the source parameters of several hundreds of seismic events are obtained, such as corner frequency fc, zero frequency limit Ω0, seismic moment M0, stress drop ∆σ, and apparent stress σapp. The 95% confidence interval of each parameter of each earthquake is obtained. The sample area is about 100 km × 400 km. Then, the calculation results are compared with statistical results, which shows that the correctness and feasibility of the fitting analysis are feasible and correct. Finally, several conclusions and prospects are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we used the super-efficient global slacks-based measure of directional distance functions (SBM-DDF) model to evaluate the ecological efficiency and changes in 12 provinces in western China between 2006 and 2020. We then used two linear and nonlinear regression models to analyze in detail the influence mechanisms of different industrial agglomeration forms on the local ecological efficiency. The results show the following: the overall ecological efficiency in the western China region shows a dynamic upward trend. The ecological efficiency of western China is quite different, with the overall characteristics of "high in south and low in north", "slow in south and fast in north", and "three-way polarization." Different types of industrial agglomeration in western China have obvious differences in terms of ecological efficiency. Both specialized agglomeration and unrelated diversification agglomeration in western China have a significant negative impact on ecological efficiency. The relationship between agglomeration-related diversity and ecological efficiency in the western region is of the "U" type. This study's results can also provide a reference for the formulation of industrial transformation and ecological protection policies in the implementation process of the second round of the western development strategy. This study thus has fundamental significance in the promotion of the second round of western development work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is a chronic problem all over the world. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in 2012, the Chinese government has continuously increased its poverty alleviation efforts. In addition, absolute poverty in China was eliminated by the end of 2020. Tourism has played an important role in poverty alleviation. To explore the role of the tourism industry in reducing poverty, this paper takes the Liupan Mountain area of Gansu Province in western China, as a case site. An input–output evaluation index system was constructed, and a Super-SBM model was used to evaluate the tourism poverty alleviation efficiency in 40 districts and counties in the Liupan Mountain area from 2009 to 2018. The results show that the overall starting point of tourism poverty alleviation efficiency in the study area was high, which needed to be further optimized. The difference in tourism poverty alleviation efficiency among districts and counties tended to decrease in the time series. The restrictive factors were the lack of technological progress and lack of innovation. The spatial distribution of tourism poverty alleviation efficiency in the study area presented a pattern of high in the east and low in the west, high in the north and low in the south. In the future, the tourism poverty alleviation efficiency in the concentrated and contiguous destitute areas of the Liupan Mountain area in Gansu Province could be improved by cultivating the tourism industry, strengthening technological innovation, cultivating core growth poles, and exerting radiation effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 14th Five-Year Plan of China proposes promoting urbanization construction, with counties as an important carrier. In order to evaluate the urbanization development level of counties in Western China, this study established an index system of population, land, and industry, constructed the coupling coordination model, selected Shaanxi Province as a representative case, and evaluated the comprehensive development level and its coordination degree of urbanization at the county level. The results show that: (1) there are two stages of urbanization in Western counties, namely "increment" and "quality improvement"; (2) county urbanization in Western China radiates from central cities, presenting the characteristics of a "core-edge" circle structure. Northern Shaanxi has significant spatial difference characteristics, the coordination and development level of the Guanzhong area are both in the lead, and Southern Shaanxi is still in the stage of weak level coordination; (3) unlike urbanization in metropolises, urbanization in Western counties is mainly driven by industrial agglomeration instead of land urbanization. However, population outflow is an obstacle to the urbanization of Western counties. The evaluation of the coordinated development of county urbanization can provide a theoretical basis and practical path for enhancing public service functions in counties, guiding urban–rural harmonious development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using trade and labor-force data of the western provinces from 1994, this study empirically proved the existence of a long-running equilibrium between foreign trade and labor size in western China. By constructing a vector autoregressive model, the results show that the "opening toward the west" policy increased western China's import and export, both of which attracted an inflow of labor force. After analyzing the numerical effect, a Shift-Share Analysis (SSA) and an analysis of the deviation degree of industrial structure are conducted, to measure the possible structural changes in the labor force. We find that manufacturing in the western provinces is comparatively more advantageous than manufacturing at the national level, which theoretically calls for a huge labor demand. Agriculture presents a contrasting result. This result is consistent with the results of the deviation degree analysis. In conclusion, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has changed the trade patterns, and it has enhanced the comparative advantages of western China and it is expected to bring about changes in both the number and the structure of the local labor force, and it provides new impetus for the region's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the effect of China's New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) on the retirement sustainability in forms of formal labor supply and informal labor supply in terms of care of grandchildren, using data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). We explore the regional differences of the NRPS effect on labor supply between the West and the other regions of China. Our analysis shows that rural Western China has a more severe problem of "ceaseless toil" compared to the rest of the country. We find that NRPS improves the "ceaseless toil" situation of the Chinese rural elderly especially in Western China. Our results suggest the need to increase the amount of NRPS payment, and to develop a region-specific pension programs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve sustainable rural development, it is necessary to simultaneously protect ecologically important land and efficiently use existing agricultural land. Land use functions (LUFs) are widely used to assess regional sustainable development. Guyuan is located in a typical hilly and gully region of western China, with ecologically fragile land. Rural land transfer (RLT) has been advocated to prevent abandonment of agricultural land and promote rational, effective utilization of the land. In this study, we used LUFs in a multi-level stakeholder assessment framework to integrate the opinions of all stakeholders in an evaluation of the impact of RLT on regional sustainable development. We employed the framework for participatory impact assessment, key informant interviews, and questionnaires to obtain data to support the development of scenarios to compare the impacts on LUFs. We found that RLT had positive impacts on each LUF in Guyuan, especially for the land-based production and food security LUFs. Importantly, the measures required to support RLT must vary among landforms and location conditions to successfully develop the LUFs and ensure sustainable development. We found that the integrated multi-level stakeholder assessment framework can comprehensively assess the impacts of land use measures on sustainable development and support regional land-use decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]