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Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rapid global urbanization has inevitably led to habitat fragmentation, and much research has focused on responding by building ecological networks and improving connectivity. The construction of such post-event ecological networks is sometimes not effective, and the identification and protection of important patches in the early urbanization period is more significant. Based on the redundancy theory, this paper explores the method of identifying potential critical habitat patches after future urban development. The paper takes the Longxing area of Chongqing city as an example and uses the cumulative current value results of circuit theory model simulations and patch characteristic attribute information as sample data, introduces a combination of the minimal-redundancy-maximal-relevance criterion and a support vector machine (mRMR + SVM) to discriminate the redundancy of patches in ecological networks, and ranks the importance of source patches. The results show that the mRMR criterion can exhibit a more realistic ranking of patch importance, allowing patches with better quality to achieve a higher ranking. Compared to the patch importance determined based on the magnitude of the cumulative current value, 66.34% of the patch importance order changed in the mRMR criterion ranking results. The mRMR + SVM method was effective in identifying individuals with redundancy from the set of source-site patches. The test found that ecological corridors still passed through or occurred near these redundant patches after their removal, demonstrating the substitutability of patches identified as redundant. The results of the study can help improve the knowledge of ecological networks and provide quantitative methodological support and decision-making reference for urban development and ecological conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration is a sound, sustainable urban development strategy globally. In China, promoting urban regeneration has become the national sustainable urban strategy. Under the resource constraint, it is necessary to understand what benefits different types of urban regeneration projects can contribute to urban development. Much research has contributed to evaluating the benefits of urban regeneration on the project scale. The systematic investigation of their effects on surrounding economic vitality, especially the comparison between different types of projects, is relatively downplayed. This paper aims to evaluate and compare the effects of urban regeneration projects on surrounding economic vitality by calculating the change in housing prices. Chongqing is selected as the case city. Based on the housing transaction data from 2015 to 2021, a staggered difference-in-difference method is employed to capture the results. The finding shows that the overall effects are significantly negative, especially within a 400–800 m radius. Higher investment or better project location relates to stronger negative effects. Moreover, the differences in effects among the three types of urban regeneration projects are clearly revealed from diverse perspectives. It provides a valuable reference for policymakers and urban planners to make urban regeneration planning better by considering comprehensive benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO2 is the main greenhouse gas. Urban spatial development, land use, and so on may be affected by CO2 and climate change. The main questions studied in this paper are as follows: What are the drivers of CO2 emissions of expanding megacities? How can they be analyzed from different perspectives? Do the results differ for megacities at different stages of development? Based on the XGBoost model, this paper explored the complex factors affecting CO2 emissions by using data of four Chinese megacities, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing, from 2003 to 2017. The main findings are as follows: The XGBoost model has better applicability and accuracy in predicting carbon emissions of expanding megacities, with root mean square error (RMSE) as low as 0.036. Under the synergistic effect of multiple factors, population, land size, and gross domestic product are still the primary driving forces of CO2 emissions. Population density and population become more important in the single-factor analysis. The key drivers of CO2 emissions in megacities at respective developmental stages are different. This paper provides methods and tools for accurately predicting CO2 emissions and measuring the critical drivers. Furthermore, it could provide decision support for megacities to make targeted carbon-emission-reduction strategies based on their own developmental stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), an important industrial belt for food security for China, is facing the challenge of decreasing cultivated land in the process of rapid urbanization. In this case, how to improve the cultivated land use efficiency (CLUE) has become the top priority. Based on data from 108 cities of YREB from 2001 to 2019, we measured CLUE using a slack-based measure with undesirable output (SBM-Undesirable). The high-value area of CLUE shows a trend from multi-core agglomeration to two-core agglomeration, mainly concentrated in Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration and the northern part of the YREB. Then the paper examines the spatial effect of urbanization on CLUE using the Spatial Error Model (SEM). The result shows that population urbanization has significantly promoted the improvement of CLUE in YREB during the sample period. With each percentage point increase in population urbanization, CLUE will increase by 2.99%. Land urbanization has a negative impact on CLUE, for each percent increase in the expansion of urban spatial scope, CLUE will decrease by 0.06%. The spatial heterogeneity analysis shows that population urbanization in the lower reaches has significantly promoted CLUE, with a coefficient of 1.053. The population urbanization level in the middle and lower reaches of the region has no obvious effect on CLUE. The coefficient of land urbanization in the downstream region is 0.35, which significantly promotes CLUE. The coefficient in the middle is −0.26, which implies the CLUE decreases by 0.26% for every one percentage point increase in land urbanization. Land urbanization in the upper has no significant impact on the CLUE. Policy implications include improving the quality of the three major urban clusters along the YREB, building an ecologic protective screen in the upper, encouraging a new agricultural management system and detailed regulations related to the cultivated land protection in YREB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dedicated bus lane (DBL) is one of the effective measures to improve transit system efficiency and further promote transit priority. Then, the performance assessment of DBLs turns out to be an essential task for better reflecting the interests of all stakeholders. To this end, this paper presents a data-driven and multidimensional framework to objectively and accurately assess the detailed performance of DBLs from the perspective of passengers, government, and operators, respectively, in which multiple data sources (i.e., IC card and GPS data) and corresponding mining technologies are adopted to establish a series of criteria, enabling a before-and-after comparison for DBL opening. The proposed model has been applied to evaluate the efficiency of the DBL system in the city of Chongqing, China. The results reveal the benefits of opening DBLs, especially for government interests, in which DBLs use less public resources to expand more public welfare. But its role in strengthening transit system competitiveness is diminished, because the opening of DBLs did not significantly increase speed and volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of urbanization has changed the original land cover and exacerbated the urban heat island effect, seriously affecting the sustainable development of the ecological environment. Research on urban heat island characteristics and land cover changes in five major urban agglomerations in China to provide a reference for preventing thermal environmental risks and urban agglomeration construction planning. This paper estimates the surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) of the five major urban agglomerations in China from 2003 to 2019 based on Google Earth Engine (GEE) through the urban–rural dichotomy, analyzes their trends through the Sen + M–K trend analysis method, and combines the detrending rate matrix to analyze the impact of land cover type shift on urban heat island change. Research shows that (1) the land cover types of the five major urban agglomerations in China have changed considerably from 2003 to 2019, and all five major urban agglomerations in China experienced varying degrees of urban expansion. (2) The annual average value of SUHII decreases in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and middle reaches of the urban agglomerations, while the annual average value of SUHII increases in Chengdu-Chongqing and Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations. (3) The spatial composition of land cover types in the five major urban agglomerations in China is highly spatially correlated with urban heat islands, with urban land and bare land urban heat islands being the most pronounced. (4) The land cover type shift has the most significant heat island impact on Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomerations. (5) The land cover change (LCC) with an increasing trend in SUHII is mainly bare land converted to arable land, and water bodies, grassland, forest land, and arable land converted to urban land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex landforms of a Shan-shui City (Shan-shui refers to mountains and rivers) significantly impact the selection of locations for logistics enterprises. This paper takes Chongqing, one of the most typical Shan-shui Cities in China, as the research object, and adopts spatial analysis methods and a mediating effect model, to explore the role of mountains and rivers in the formation of logistics enterprises' spatial pattern on the street scale. The study results reveal that 90% of the logistics enterprises in the central urban areas of Chongqing are located in the low-altitude area below 353m above sea level, and distributed in a north-south direction along the mountains, as a result of blockage by mountain ranges, such as those of Zhongliang Mountain and Tongluo Mountain. More than 70% of the logistics enterprises are located less than 5 km from either the Yangtze River or Jialing River, spreading along the rivers. In addition, more than half of the logistics enterprises in commercial and financial, and residential land are located within the urban core area, while 80.83% of the logistics enterprises located in warehousing land and industrial land are concentrated in the urban expansion area. In areas with high land prices, the negative effect of altitude on logistics enterprise agglomeration is weakened, while the promotion effect of river proximity on logistics enterprise agglomeration is enhanced. In the urban core area with the advantage of low altitude and proximity to the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers, the role of mountains and rivers on logistics enterprises is not apparent; in contrast, in the urban expansion area with more complex landforms, land price can be an effective means for the government to macro-manage the spatial pattern of logistics enterprises in a Shan-shui City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Railway Standard Design is the property of Railway Standard Design Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduction: In the context of ongoing discussions in Chongqing (China) about urban development strategies for the city's transit system, this paper introduces an empirical framework for assessing the development of urban transit stations in mountainous cities. Cities in mountainous areas possess unique natural topography, development patterns, cultures, and natural resources, leading to distinct urban development characteristics compared to cities built on plains. Methods: Drawing on the node-place modelling literature, we develop a multidimensional station assessment methodology adapted for mountainous cities. By adding the dimension of pedestrian experience, we propose indicators that represent the unique challenges of accessing stations in such terrains that are not typically reflected in conventional node-place analysis. Results: Our findings reveal station-specific development opportunities in greater detail and can guide more targeted planning for land use around stations. Discussion: Our assessment method is particularly useful for cities facing terrain challenges that impact pedestrian experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attaining optimal eco-efficiency is of paramount importance in promoting the sustainable and harmonious development of the economy and environment within urban agglomerations. Firstly, this paper utilizes the Super-SBM model with undesirable output to measure the eco-efficiency (EE) of 64 cities in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei metropolitan region (BTHMR), the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the Pearl River Delta (PRD), and the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Zone (CCEZ) from 2006 to 2019. Secondly, this study puts forth a novel and comprehensive index system aimed at evaluating the urbanization efficiency and sheds light on the spatiotemporal changes in EE and urbanization efficiency. Finally, the STIRPAT model is used to examine the influencing factors of EE and to investigate the correlation between EE and urbanization efficiency. The study found that the overall EE of the four typical urban agglomerations is high, but the trend varies with a decrease of about 12.9% from 2006 to 2019. The mean EE is in the order of CCEZ > PRD > BTHMR > YRD, with mean values of 0.941, 0.909, 0.842, and 0.732, respectively. The level of science and technology and the urbanization efficiency have a significant positive impact on EE, while population, industrial structure, FDI, and greening level have an inhibitory effect on urban eco-efficiency. Based on the results, policy suggestions such as paying attention to regional heterogeneity and giving full play to the government's macro-regulatory role in shaping the economic and industrial structure are proposed to serve as a guide for the coordinated development of urban agglomerations under the Dual Carbon Target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extremely heavy rainfall has posed a significant hazard to urban growth as the most common and disaster-prone natural calamity. Due to its unique geographical location, the metro system is more vulnerable to waterlogging caused by rainstorm disaster. Research on resilience to natural disasters has attracted extensive attention in recent years. However, few studies have focused on the resilience of the metro system against rainstorms. Therefore, this paper aims to develop an assessment model for evaluating metro stations' resilience levels. Twenty factors are carried out from dimensions of resistance, recovery and adaptation. The methods of ordered binary comparison, entropy weight and cloud model are proposed to build the assessment model. Then, taking Chongqing metro system in china as a case study, the resilience level of 13 metro stations is calculated. Radar charts from dimensions of resistance, recovery, and adaptation are created to propose recommendations for improving metro stations' resilience against rainstorms, providing a reference for the sustainable development of the metro system. The case study of the Chongqing metro system in china demonstrates that the assessment model can effectively evaluate the resilience level of metro stations and can be used in other infrastructures under natural disasters for resilience assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although some methods have identified the physical urban area to a certain extent, the driving factors for the identification threshold have not been studied deeply. In this paper, vector building data and road intersection data are used for comparative validation based on the urban expansion curve method to identify the physical urban area using the meso-city scale. The geographical detector technique is used to detect how and to what extent the urban spatial structure factors, geographical environment factors and social economic factors affect the optimal distance threshold of 22 administrative districts in the Chongqing municipality. The results based on the vector buildings are more precise and show the characteristics of the physical urban area of core-periphery distribution and the distribution along the water corridor. From the results of quantitative attribution, it was found that the road network density, building density, urbanization rate and urban population density, and their interaction with regional GDP, play a critical role in the optimal distance threshold, with the index value of influence degree ≥0.79. Under the influence of different factors, the optimal distance thresholds of 22 administrative districts show adaptive characteristics. Looking forward to the future, this study provides ideas for further research on the morphological characteristics and distribution laws of multi-spatial scale cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the background of global warming, heat wave disasters have become more frequent globally, and mountainous cities are more seriously affected by heat wave disasters due to the special features of topography and urban morphology. This paper analyzes the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of heat wave disasters in Chongqing, a mountainous city. The results shows that heat wave disasters in Chongqing tend to increase overall and decrease locally before increasing. Significant growth in heat waves since 2010 and time series model prediction analysis shows that Chongqing will face more severe heat waves in the future. The spatial distribution of heat wave disasters varies significantly, high in the middle and low at the ends. There is a tendency for the center of heat wave disasters to shift from the south-central part of Chongqing to the northeast. In addition to the influence of atmospheric circulation and mountain topography, the causes are also positively related to urban development intensity and urbanization trends. It is necessary to develop specific control and management measures for heat waves depending on the characteristics of them. The take-home message of the study is the spatial and temporal trends of heat waves in Chongqing to provide a theoretical basis for high-temperature mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous implementation of the rural revitalisation strategy, the social and economic landscape of China's countryside has undergone significant changes and the structure and functions of rural production space have gradually become more complex and diversified. The theory of rural production space and its multifunctionality provides a new perspective for the study of rural human–land relationship patterns. Taking Western Chongqing, one of the national pilot zones for integrated urban–rural development, as an example, a scientific evaluation index system is established from the perspective of rural production space and its multifunctionality. The evaluation takes into account the consensus indicators of existing academic results, the regional characteristics of Western Chongqing, and relevant policies. On this basis, a regression model is constructed to investigate the factors influencing multifunctional regional differentiation, and a weighted clustering algorithm is used to classify the units in the study area into functional zones. The results of the study are as follows: (1) A multifunctional evaluation system with 24 indicators in five dimensions was constructed through the principle of scientific selection of indicators. (2) All functions in the rural production space of Western Chongqing have the respective geographical differentiation characteristics. In particular, the high-value and low-value agglomerations are generally distributed in strips or clusters, and the high-value and low-value agglomerations are intermingled, with each influencing factor driving the differentiation process of each function in the form of inhibition and reinforcement. (3) Western Chongqing can be divided into four types of functional areas: balanced development, lagging development–ecological recreation, urban development, and modern agriculture. Differentiated development strategies are proposed for different types of functional areas. We conclude that the study of the multifunctional spatial differentiation of rural production and functional zoning can provide a clearer analysis of the current status of rural development in Western Chongqing, and also enriches the perspective and methodology of the study of rural areas in western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated land resources are crucial to food security and economic development. Exploring the spatiotemporal pattern of cultivated land non-agriculturalization and its drivers is a prerequisite for cultivated land conservation. This paper used GlobeLand30 data to reveal the spatial and temporal pattern, the shift of the gravity center and the drivers of cultivated land non-agriculturalization by employing spatial analysis, gravity center model and the geographical detector model. The results show a dramatic increase in the non-agriculturalization of cultivated land in the period of 2010–2020 compared to 2000–2010. Spatially, the cultivated land non-agriculturalization mainly occurred in areas with high urbanization levels, such as eastern Sichuan Province and western Chongqing Municipality, while the cultivated land non-agriculturalization in other areas was small-scale and spatially scattered. Furthermore, the speed of cultivated land non-agriculturalization showed spatial unevenness, and the gravity center of cultivated land non-agriculturalization shifted towards the northeast at a distance of 123.21 km. The cultivated land non-agriculturalization was affected by GDP per capita, population density, GDP per unit of land and total retail sales of social consumer goods. The key drivers for the cultivated land non-agriculturalization in the study area were the continuous expansion of urban space and the large-scale cultivation of economic fruit trees. The government should promote small-scale machinery suitable for agricultural cultivation in the mountainous and hilly areas of Southwest China, and appropriately develop economic fruit groves and livestock farming to reduce the phenomenon of cultivated land non-foodization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Organic development is one of the evolutionary development models for cities, and it can facilitate cities to continually adapt to their surroundings and therefore adjust their development. Former research is mostly focused on cities and environmental changes, and research on the organic development of cities in various conditions is rather scarce. Purpose. By creating an evaluation index system for organic cities, this paper has established a multifactor evaluation model and improved the evaluation methodologies for organic cities. Methods. The authors have come up with a method that combines PCA and CNN, established an optimized model to calculate the organic cities, verified the accuracy of the evaluation index system for organic cities, and finally concluded that urban organic development is mostly associated with the aspects of the natural environment, economic basis, land use, and population scale of the city. Case Study. In addition, the examples of Bishan District, Chongqing, and Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, are simulated and compared, and an accurate prediction for the organic development of small cities in China is given. Conclusion. The evaluation index system for organic cities devised by this paper can be applied effectively to evaluate the organic city of cities, and the neural network prediction model for organic cities designed by this paper can provide references for further research on organic cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has a vast area of mountains that are of great research interest. Chongqing is a typical mountain city in China. In urban construction, a mountain is not only an important limiting condition for urban development, but also an important condition for shaping the urban form. The area from the Yangtze River to the eastern ridge line of Nan Mountain in Nanan District is strongly representative of mountain cities with a complex landform, fragile ecological environment and a long history and culture. In recent years, the construction and optimization of this area are increasingly closely related to the landscape environment. However, due to the special environments of mountain cities, altitude and landform conditions become the key influencing conditions for further development of the cities. Therefore, this paper takes this region as an example, focuses on remote sensing and field measurement data, combines government data with that from scholarly research, and conducts relevant exploration through GIS, ENVI and some chart processing software. At first, from the perspective of the landscape gradient and urban construction, the characteristics of the urban landscape gradient are sorted out, and the developmental status of each urban area is analyzed. Then, the coupling relationships between the landscape features of each gradient and each urban area are analyzed. Finally, based on the analysis results, three major optimization measures are proposed to maintain ecological harmony in the mountainous area, reconstruct the mountain characteristic culture, and create unique mountain aesthetics, all with the hope of providing some guidance for the future development of the study area and similar mountain cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Geography & Geographic Information Science is the property of Geography & Geo-Information Science Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban development always has a strong impact on the urban thermal environment, but it is unclear to what extent urbanization factors influence urban heat island intensity (UHII) in mountainous cities, and fewer studies have been conducted on the trends of long-term UHII in mountainous cities. Chongqing, as the only municipality directly under the central government in Southwest China and a typical mountainous city, is chosen as the case study. This study analyzed the interannual and seasonal variations of UHII based on the data from meteorological stations in Chongqing from 1959 to 2018 using the least-squares method and the Mann–Kendall test, and explored the relationship between urbanization factors (urban resident population, gross domestic product (GDP), fixed investments, and gross industrial output value) and UHII. The results show that the increasing rates of temperature in urban areas of Chongqing are significantly higher than those in rural areas affected by urbanization. Using the Mann–Kendall test, it is found that almost all abrupt temperature changes in Chongqing occurred after the rapid urbanization of Chongqing in the 21st century. The annual mean UHII increased from 0.1 °C to 1.5 °C during the study period, with summer making the largest contribution. It is also found that the UHII in Chongqing has increased year by year, especially after the 1980s. The increasing rates of UHII are larger at night and smaller during the day. The increasing trends of nighttime UHII are statistically significant, while those of daytime UHII are not. In addition, UHII and urbanization factors are found to be correlated using the grey relational analysis (GRA). Eventually, a comprehensive UHII index and a comprehensive urbanization index are constructed using principal component analysis (PCA). A tertiary regression model of UHII and urbanization index is established, which reflects that the UHII in Chongqing will continue to grow rapidly with the development of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Geography & Geographic Information Science is the property of Geography & Geo-Information Science Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the cross-sectional data of 2000 and 2015, this paper quantitatively analyzes several indicators of the Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration, including the permanent population, urban population, GDP, and total industrial output value, to explore the overall situation of the spatial development of urban agglomeration at this stage. The study finds that the permanent population and GDP maintain the trend of concentrating to higher-level cities, and the central cities of Chengdu and Chongqing have an obvious status of polarization. The main city of Chongqing is relatively dependent on industry, while the main city of Chengdu is driven by service economy and has a stronger capacity of urban population concentration. Different from the traditional understanding, Chongqing's regional central cities have realized rapid industry-driven growth, and their development is faster than that of Sichuan's prefecture-level cities. Despite of a large outflow of population, county-level units have achieved high growth rate of urban population, and the in-situ urbanization is obvious. The spatial pattern shows an "eastward inclination," in which the development of western Chongqing is the most outstanding, while that of Chengdu Plain and southern Sichuan region with a better basis has slowed down, and the originally backward areas, such as northeastern Chongqing, southeastern Chongqing, and eastern Sichuan, have a prominent development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

the construction of high-speed railway improves the accessibility of cities along the route and plays a certain role in promoting the economic development of cities. The construction of Chengdu-Chongqing high-speed railway improves the timeliness and accessibility of Chengdu to Chongqing, and plays a certain role in promoting the development of cities along the Neijiang River.This paper mainly analyzes the influence of Chengdu-Chongqing high-speed railway on the economic development of Neijiang city after its completion, and puts forward some targeted suggestions for the development of Neijiang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological networks in mountainous regions are vital for enhancing ecosystem functionality and ensuring regional ecological stability, alleviating the contradiction between land use and ecological development in rapid urbanization. However, the complexity of mountains and the need to establish a connection between ecosystem services and human well-being present significant challenges in constructing ecological networks. This study proposes an idea that identifies and derives an optimal scenario for ecological networks, integrating insights from ecosystem services and network analysis. The aim of the ecological network is to improve and protect the ecosystem's stability while better guiding sustainable development in mountainous regions' urban and rural areas. This study uses qualitative evaluation methods and a graph theory model to obtain the ecological network's sources and links. The results indicate that (1) 58 important ecological source areas were identified, with a total area of 5746 km2, mainly covered by woodland and water bodies. (2) An optimal and feasible scenario comprising 5 horizontal and 14 longitudinal corridors was established. Corridors rely primarily on the river system and mountains. (3) A total of 5 key ecological function areas and some ecological zones in important urban development areas were identified. Control measures for these ecological lands were proposed to enhance the effectiveness of ecosystem service construction. It can be concluded that identifying and deriving an optimal scenario of ecological networks in mountainous regions from the perspectives of ecosystem services and network analysis is feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although urban growth boundaries (UGBs) have been employed as a planning tool in certain Western cities for decades, they have recently been adopted in Chinese cities to address urban sprawl. However, the effectiveness of UGBs in different types of Chinese cities, particularly those on flatlands versus mountains, has not been studied. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of UGBs in a city on flatlands (Chengdu, China) and a mountainous city (Chongqing, China). We used a deep learning architecture (U-Net) to project urban expansions in 2035 with the presence/absence of UGBs and landscape metrics to evaluate UGBs' effectiveness in mitigating urban sprawl. We found significant differences in historical urban expansion between Chengdu and Chongqing from 1992 to 2019. Chengdu experienced spillover sprawl under a monocentric-dominated urban form, while Chongqing witnessed leapfrog and piece-mall sprawl under a polycentric form. Despite the differences in UGBs designation, the simulations demonstrated that UGBs could mitigate urban sprawl in both cities in 2035, with Chengdu exhibiting more pronounced effectiveness. Notably, UGBs were more effective in controlling spillover sprawl in Chengdu, whereas they could effectively reduce leapfrog sprawl in Chongqing. However, UGBs were constrained by strict top-down land quotas, limiting their potential. These findings suggested that implementing UGBs should adopt differentiated goals and strategies for different types of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• From the "Production-Living-Ecological" perspective, the Tapio decoupling model is used to measure decoupling relationship between EG and WC. • The causal chain of EG and WC is decomposed to explore internal causes. • The decoupling performance in Chongqing and Chengdu has been improving for the period of 2003 - 2019. • Population growth has a greater impact on the decoupling index of EG and WC. • Policy suggestions to achieve sustainable urban economic development and water consumption are recommended. Decoupling economic growth (EG) from water consumption (WC) is essential for the development of sustainable urban areas. To study the relationship between EG and WC of Cheng-Yu Dual-City Economic Circle from a "production-living-ecological" perspective, this paper measures the decoupling relationship between WC and GDP of Chongqing and Chengdu from 2003 to 2019 based on the Tapio decoupling model. By introducing population and industrial growth, the causal-chain decomposition model is then used to decompose the decoupling index into three factors. We found that the relationship between EG and WC in Chongqing and Chengdu decoupled weakly and strongly, which means that there is a trend of healthy and sustainable development. The decoupling relationship of production water is similar to that of the total water consumption, while the production water and the ecological water use are quite different from the total water consumption. For its driving influencing factors, population growth has a greater impact on the decoupling index of EG and WC. Drawing on the above findings of present paper, corresponding development suggestions are proposed to facilitate the health and sustainable development of the Cheng-Yu Dual-City Economic Circle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific descriptions and simulations of the ecological risks in mountainous areas can promote the sustainable use of land resources in these areas and improve the reliability of decision-making for ecological risk management. Taking Chongqing, China, as an example, we constructed a landscape ecological risk (LER) evaluation model based on land use data from 1995 to 2020 and analysed the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of the LER pattern. Moreover, we coupled the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) model and multi-objective programming (MOP) method and input multiple scenarios (inertial development, ID; economic priority development, ED; ecological priority development, PD; and sustainable development, SD) to simulate the ecological risk pattern in 2030. The model coupling the "top-down" and "bottom-up" processes obtained optimal land use patterns in different contexts, and it was used to perform a spatially explicit examination of LER evolutionary trends in different contexts. The results showed that LER evolution in Chongqing has had obvious stage characteristics. The high-risk area decreased significantly under various constraints, including topographic, economic, and other constraints, and the distribution showed a trend of high in the west and low in the east. The LER spatial clustering characteristics were highly coupled with the risk level pattern. The ED scenario presented the most severe risk, the PD scenario presented a moderate risk, and the SD scenario balanced the land demand for economic and ecological development and had a better land use structure and LER compared with the other scenarios. The coupled model proposed in this study helps to obtain the optimal land use structure and mitigate ecological risks, thus providing a scientific basis for future urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the focal points in Geographic Information Science (GIS) is to uncover the spatial distribution patterns of geographical phenomena. In response to the insufficient spatial feature learning concerning neighborhoods in traditional machine learning-based Cellular Automata (CA) models for land use change, this study couples the Random Forest (RF) model and the Spatially Non-Stationary Convolutional Neural Network (SNSCNN) model to the CA model. The resulting RF-SNSCNN-CA model considers the issue of spatial non-stationarity by incorporating attention mechanisms. Using observed urban land change data from 2010 to 2017 in the 21 districts of Chongqing's main city as an example, two sets of experiments comprising eight scenarios were designed to verify the neighborhood effects. The results demonstrate that the proposed RF-SNSCNN-CA model achieves an Overall Accuracy (OA) of 97.82%, Kappa of 0.7683, and Figure of Merit (FoM) of 0.3836. The study reveals the following findings. Firstly, the RF-SNSCNN-CA model integrates the dual advantages of traditional machine learning and deep learning models, in which SNSCNN improves by the combined effect of channel and spatial attention mechanisms improves the learning of neighborhood features; secondly, the machine learning-like urban sprawl CA modeling process, regardless of the approach taken to obtain development suitability, cannot completely replace the learning of the neighborhood part; lastly, the use of traditional neighborhood modeling methods may produce suppression of simulation results and make the model inadequately learn spatial features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial commercialization of rural areas is essential to achieve rural reconstruction and promote overall rural rejuvenation. Through the use of a land use transfer matrix and kernel density, this study uncovers the pattern characteristics, driving forces, and development patterns of rural spatial commodification at various altitudes, providing a scientific reference for rural spatial usage at various altitudes. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: (1) rural spatial commercialization is the result of land use transformation, and the differences in rural spatial commercialization development patterns lead to different characteristics in the local land use changes; (2) the implementation of urbanization, industrialization, and rural revitalization strategies has promoted the development of rural spatial commercialization to some extent; (3) There are significant differences in the characteristics of the land use change and the development pattern of rural space commercialization at various altitudes. The areas below 500 m are mainly for recreational projects that have a repeatable consumption and that are distributed in a concentrated and continuous manner. For such areas, the agglomeration effect should be taken full advantage of, and thus they should be developed in groups. The areas between 500 and 1000 m serve mainly the surrounding residents; the mode is based on the leisure and recreational projects with a block-shaped spatial distribution. In such areas, branded rural spaces with special features should be created. The areas above 1000 m are used primarily to construct tourist attractions and are dispersed in a point pattern. In such areas, the transportation conditions should be improved and the rural resources revitalized by designing reasonable travel routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two prerequisites for monitoring SDG11.A "support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning" are the classification of the urban–rural continuum and the extraction of spatial links. However, the complexity and diversity of urban patch distribution make it difficult to achieve a global rapid assessment. Based on the self-developed high-resolution global impervious surface area 2021 (Hi-GISA 2021) product, this study combined the complex network with remote sensing technology to propose a new method to delineate and evaluate the pattern and inner spatial links of the urban–rural continuum for five typical urban agglomerations in China, including the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration (BTHUA), the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA), the Greater Bay Area (GBAUA), the Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration (CYUA), and the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River urban agglomeration (MRYRUA). The research results are in good agreement with Chinese government documents. First, the five urban agglomerations are all small-world networks with a low degree of overall polycentricity, and the urbanization degrees of GBAUA and YRDUA are higher than BTHUA, CYUA, and MRYRUA. Second, the imbalanced development of YRDUA is higher than the other regions, and the siphon effects of BTHUA and MRYRUA are more significant than YRDUA, CYUA, and GBAUA. Third, some multi-centers show significant siphon effects. The urbanization degree is highly correlated with the urbanization potential but not positively correlated with the degree of balanced development. The results can provide data, methods, and technical support for monitoring and evaluating SDG11.A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural hazards and urbanization put enormous pressure on cities and affect their sustainable development. Against the backdrop of the increasingly prominent urban disease, a comprehensive urban vulnerability assessment has a positive effect on improving the quality of urbanization. In this study, prefecture-level cities in Southwest China were taken as the study area, and their vulnerability was studied dynamically from 2010 to 2019. The four major systems were integrated, and a comprehensive vulnerability evaluation index system was constructed. Game theory and TOPSIS were combined to minimize the impact of subjective factors on the results. The results indicate that the overall vulnerability of Southwest China shows an irregular downward trend and strong spatial heterogeneity. There are 5 cities with very high vulnerability and 1 with very low vulnerability in 2010, accounting for 15.15% and 3.03% of the total number of cities, respectively. In contrast, the results for 2019 are the opposite, with 1 city with very high vulnerability and 5 cities with very low vulnerability. The better the economic situation, the lower the urban vulnerability. And there is a non-strictly negative correlation between urban vulnerability and urban size. When the difference in size between two cities is large enough, the vulnerability of the larger city is significantly lower. Leading development cities such as Chengdu and Chongqing have low vulnerability, while high vulnerability is mainly distributed in cities with poor infrastructure. On the basis of results, the research can be regarded as reference for urban management and coordinated development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact and transmission mechanism of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on the economic growth of city clusters. Via theoretical analysis, a spatial Durbin model (SDM) and mediating effect model are applied based on panel data of the three major city clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 1997 to 2018. The results reveal the following: (1) FDI inflows promote the economic growth of city clusters in the YREB, but the degrees of impacts on the three city clusters are different; (2) the spatial effects of FDI inflows differ across city clusters; the effects are negative in city clusters of the Yangtze River Delta and the Yangtze River Middle Reaches, and positive in the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster; (3) urbanization and industrial structure upgrading are two important mechanisms by which FDI inflows promote the economic growth of city clusters. However, there are differences among the three major city clusters; the intermediary effect of urbanization is more significant in city clusters of Chengdu-Chongqing and the Yangtze River Middle Reaches, while the intermediary effect of industrial structure upgrading is more significant in the Yangtze River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing city clusters. Policy implications are proposed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates over the ontology of contemporary urbanization have questioned the notion of a meaningful 'outside' to the urban and have called for greater attention to the socially contested construction of urban subjects and space. Ethnographic study of informal peri‐urban agriculture in the rapidly urbanizing city of Chongqing in Southwest China allows for a critical examination of the everyday ecologies and economies of planetary urbanization. The state‐led expansion of Chongqing since the early 2000s has created a peri‐urban zone consisting of large areas of undeveloped land awaiting construction, which is utilized informally by displaced 'urbanized' peasants and migrant workers. The use of this 'empty' urban land for agriculture reveals informal practices and displaced subjects which are variously positioned as 'outside' or 'within' urban systems and values. The undeveloped land remains ecologically entangled with urban processes and is the site of a contested commoning of space which is regarded as external to urban market values. Theorizing from the kongdi (empty land) launches a novel understanding of under‐studied urbanizing spaces which are positioned ambiguously outside urban governance, are under threat of rapid enclosure within urban regimes of accumulation, and spatialize the negotiation of the boundaries and meaning of the urban itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located in the mountainous area of southwest China, the Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration (CCUA) has been rapidly urbanized in the last 4 decades, which has led to a 3-fold urban area expansion, thereby affecting the weather and climate. To investigate the urbanization effects on the thermal environment in the CCUA under complex terrain, we conducted simulations using the advanced Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF V4.1.5) model together with combined land use scenarios and terrain conditions. We observed that the WRF model reproduces the general synoptic summer weather pattern, particularly for the thermal environment. It was shown that the expansion of the urban area changed the underlying surface's thermal properties, leading to the urban heat island effect, enhanced further by the complex terrain. The simulation with the future scenario shows that the implementation of idealized measures including returning farmland to forests and expanding rivers and lakes can reduce the urban heat island effect and regulate the urban ecosystem. Therefore, urban planning policy has the potential to provide feasible suggestions to best manage the thermal environment of the future city toward improving the livelihood of the people in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from the state of large-scale energy use and concentrated energy conservation in urban areas, the state of energy use and energy conservation in rural areas has its own characteristics and typical problems. Rural areas have been concentrated on the multiple differences in economic, social, and construction characteristics such as mountain and peace dam topography, natural and artificial construction, developed and underdeveloped, rapid urban development, and relatively backward rural development. It has practical problems that need to be solved urgently, such as the "insufficient savings" in the construction of farmhouses and the "insufficient open source" of clean energy applications. The discussion will be conducted from three aspects: the planning and layout design of rural houses in Chongqing, the performance of the enclosure structure of rural houses in key seasons, and the application of renewable clean energy in rural houses. Then put forward is the energy-saving design path of Chongqing farmhouse. It aims to improve the indoor and outdoor thermal environment of farmhouses, saving heating energy consumption in winter and air-conditioning energy consumption in summer and effectively benefit users to use renewable energy such as biogas, straw, and solar energy. Finally, explore the adaptability between the design methods of farmhouses and the local characteristics of Chongqing's rural areas. In the work of Chongqing Design Going to the Countryside, we create a contemporary farmhouse case that is not only energy-saving but also has good indoor and outdoor space quality. It also provides a reference for the energy-saving design of farmhouses in Chongqing and other regions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Provision of land for urban development and the protection of cultivated land has been a dilemma in Chinese urbanization. • Dipiao, a development rights transfer mechanism intends to address dilemma of Chinese urbanization. • Dipiao mechanism promote urban rural integration. • Mechanism of Dipiao is able to improve land use efficiency, protect rural land, and increase peasants' income. • Some factors, e.g. higher cost, uncertainty, and others affect effective and efficient delivery of Dipiao in Chongqing. A contradictory policy in Chinese rapid urbanization comes from the twin demands for urban development land uses due to urban expansion and the protection of cultivated land for food security. Dipiao , a type of development rights transfer in Chongqing, aims at protecting cultivated land, optimizing the urban-rural land use structure, increasing villagers' income and easing the tensions between cultivated land protection and urban land development. The mechanism of Dipiao seems to be a solution to address the Chinese dilemma of land uses in urbanization. However, after delivery of this mechanism for 4 years, the market of Dipiao began to fall, especially on the demand side. The purpose of this paper is to study the determinant factors, including higher cost, uncertainty and decreases in benefits, developers' unfulfilled expectations, and accessibility to alternatives, that affect the market of Dipiao. It is expected that this research may offer some inspiration to government policy makers to reduce transitional costs in the Dipiao mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban growth boundaries are an efficient tool for protecting non-urban land uses from being dominated by urban sprawl and can promote sustainable urban development. Previous studies have explored the use of a cellular automata simulation and its visualization products in delimiting future UGBs. However, existing CA-UGB delineation models lack a transcendental component for ecological evaluation and are difficult to apply to areas with complex ecological environments or heterogeneous resource endowments. Therefore, this paper introduces an innovative model by coupling the dual-environmental evaluation and the Future Land-use Simulation CA model for delimiting future UGBs. To prioritize ecological protection, some intermediate products of the DEE are processed as pivotal components in the CA simulations. Strict urban simulation constraints are also applied in the FLUS model to meet the DEE regulations and prioritize ecological protection. This model was implemented to plan future UGBs in Chungking, China. After quantifying and comparing the proposed UGB scheme with other UGB delineations of Chungking by using various landscape metrics, the DEE-UGBs show a stronger ability to manage urban patches via aggregation with the simultaneous reconciliation of contradictions among land uses. • Developing an innovative DEE based UGB delineation model. • Applying a CA based simulation and a morphological method to delineate future UGB. • Adopting a county level simulation strategy according to local eco-environmental conditions. • Introducing methods on balancing the heterogeneity of endogenous natural resource endowments under complex ecological environmental conditions. • Performance of the proposed UGB scheme is prominent in promoting urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Understanding patterns and drivers of urbanization is essential for urban sustainability, but such understanding is lacking for mountainous regions. Objectives: This study had three objectives: (1) to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion in Chongqing, the largest mountainous metropolitan area in China, during 1990–2015; (2) to explore major drivers for the observed urbanization patterns; and (3) to identify the spatial signatures of Chongqing's urbanization which differ from those of topographically flat urban regions for sustainable urban planning in mountainous regions. Methods: We used multiple metrics to characterize urbanization patterns and expansion modes. Pearson correlation analysis and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) were used to identify potential drivers. Results: The built-up area of Chongqing increased five times during 1990–2015 with regional variations. Three growth modes—leapfrog, edge-expansion, and infilling, took place concurrently, but their relative dominance varied in time and space with leapfrog as the dominant mode in recent years. The major drivers of built-up area expansion changed from demography to economy, with topographic constraints attenuating over time. Compared to flat urban regions in China, the spatial signatures of Chongqing's urbanization were characterized by greater dominance of leapfrog expansion mode with smaller and more regularly-shaped patches. Conclusions: The unique patterns and drivers of urban expansion in Chongqing provide new insights of urbanization in mountainous regions for sustainable urban planning. We have proposed a conceptual urban planning framework for mountainous cities based on landscape sustainability science, GeoDesign, and regional landscape characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

belonging to a small group of privileged Chinese cities, Chongqing covers a big economic role for the development of the South-west, since the "Open up the West" policy was launched in 1997. In correspondence with the new economic role, the city has also gained a higher political position among the bigger Chinese cities, becoming at that time a new Municipality. The city itself knew thus a 'redefinition' in landscape borders and economic image, fact that should though be seen as a "Renaissance" attempt granted by the Central Government. In this article we would like to offer a new perspective of this city, whose importance in Chinese scenery is most of the time misunderstood by foreigners: a deeper insight into Chongqing history could therefore offer a chance to reflect on the controversial recent phenomena that have affected this territory. Our interest is directed to the analysis of urban and industrial changes on the background of the establishment of the People Republic of China in 1949, from the concept of Danwei to the re-allocation of the industrial apparatus, and concluding with a section dedicated to the performance of Communist 'propaganda rites' behind the urban grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catering services are an essential part of urban life. The spatial structure and evolution of catering services can reflect the characteristics of an urban structure to a certain extent. In this study, we selected the main urban area of Chongqing, a typical mountainous city, as the research area. According to data sources for 200,000 catering POI data points in 2015 and 2020, we extracted the hotspots according to catering service grade based on kernel density. We quantitatively analyzed the spatiotemporal structure of catering services in the mountainous city. In addition, we used digital field hierarchical structure Tupu and generalized symmetric structure Tupu to identify the spatial morphology and evolution characteristics to enhance the understanding of geoscience trends. The results showed that (1) the distribution of catering services was statically consistent with the "multi-center group" distribution of the mountainous city and dynamically similar to the "sprawling leap" development of the mountainous city where it developed from independent points to cross mountains and rivers. Moreover, we found that there was a tendency of adhering development between groups. (2) From the perspective of symmetrical distribution, the symmetrical distribution of the catering industry reflected a certain generalized symmetrical structure with mountains and rivers in the mountainous city. Furthermore, the city tended to develop symmetrically along the topography, thus forming the symmetry of economic geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood risk assessment and mapping is required for management and mitigation of flood in mountain cities. However, the specific characteristics of population, society, economy, environment, transportation and other disaster-bearing bodies in various regions of mountain cities are significantly different, which increases the uncertainty of risk assessment index weight and risk assessment accuracy. To overcome these problems, the triangular fuzzy number-based analytical hierarchy process (TFN-AHP) was employed to determine the weights of eleven indexes influencing flooding. Further, the geographic information system (GIS) spatial statistics technique was introduced to investigate global regional risk pattern, as well as to identify local risk hot spots. Experiments were conducted using open data of Chongqing, China. From the results, it was observed that the TFN-AHP has a higher efficiency in flood risk assessment on mountain cities than the AHP method. The dynamically changing risk pattern and risk hot spots were explored, and the results are generally consistent with seasonal characteristics of precipitation. Lastly, sensitivity analysis of assessment factors' weights was conducted. The comparative consequences indicate that TFN-AHP can better assess the flooding risk and can be successfully applied to urban development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]