Search

City‐regional development is a key lens to understand the interplay between geo‐economics and geopolitics (re)shaping multiscale geographic processes. We advance this thesis by foregrounding the state–finance–infrastructure nexus underpinning contemporary city‐regional development. We argue that unpacking this nexus is important for understanding how the co‐constitution of crisis‐driven state restructurings and state‐mediated geographic processes arises as a solution to pressing crises emerging from the current conjuncture. In this conjuncture, the financial sector and the city‐region are the focal points of state regulation for addressing multidimensional and multiscale crises. We substantiate this argument by tracing how and why the Chinese central state restructured the municipal financing policy to prompt the rapid transformation of Chengdu from a less‐developed city in Western China to an emerging gateway city on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since the mid‐2010s. We contribute an inward and material approach to understanding the geostrategy by shifting the attention from the broad‐level abstraction of external geopolitical/geo‐economic goals to (1) the material processes in which the geostrategy unfolds through internal institutional restructurings and territorial reorganisation and (2) how the BRI‐related infrastructure projects are enacted for addressing social, political and economic requisites at the (sub)national scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a change in the incidence and transmission of respiratory pathogens was observed. Here, we retrospectively analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on the epidemiologic characteristics of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection among children in Chengdu, one of the largest cities of western China.Method: M. pneumoniae infection was diagnosed in 33,345 pediatric patients with respiratory symptoms at the Chengdu Women's & Children's Central Hospital between January 2017 and December 2020, based on a serum antibody titer of ≥1:160 measured by the passive agglutination assay. Differences in infection rates were examined by sex, age, and temporal distribution.Results: Two epidemic outbreaks occurred between October-December 2017 and April-December 2019, and two infection peaks were detected in the second and fourth quarters of 2017, 2018, and 2019. Due to the public health response to COVID-19, the number of positive M. pneumoniae cases significantly decreased in the second quarter of 2020. The number of M. pneumoniae infection among children aged 3-6 years was higher than that in other age groups.Conclusions: Preschool children are more susceptible to M. pneumoniae infection and close contact appears to be the predominant factor favoring pathogen transmission. The public health response to COVID-19 can effectively control the transmission of M. pneumoniae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We conducted a comparative analysis of carbon emissions and urban expansion indicators for the two empirical cities Xi'an and Chengdu in China. • We applied an extended STIRPAT model to quantify the impact of urban spatial expansion on carbon emissions. • Our analysis provides a more comprehensive and cohesive picture of the relationship between urban expansion and the reduction of carbon emissions. • Our empirical study using spatiotemporal and socioeconomic data highlights the importance of urban spatial structure for constructing low-carbon cities. Rapidly expanding urban areas constitute places of high-intensity energy consumption and, hence, major carbon emissions. There is an urgent need to systematically review the relationship between urban spatial expansion and carbon emissions at the city level, especially for cities in western China where development lags behind compared to other parts of the country, and differences among resource availability exist. Here, we conducted a systematic comparative analysis of carbon emissions and urban expansion indicators for urban spatial development. We introduce and apply an extension of the STIRPAT model to quantify the impact of urban spatial expansion on carbon emissions for the cities of Xi'an and Chengdu located in western China. The model findings indicate that both cities have reached the absolute and relative goal of carbon emissions, although they experienced a sprawling pattern. Moreover, population density for both cities displayed a negative relationship with carbon emissions, whereas road area per capita displayed a positive relationship. Since western cities have a later starting point for development, the empirical research on influencing variables of carbon emissions for western cities is important to local and regional urban spatial planning and governance. We propose further empirical studies regarding the gaps of existing urban spatial structure and low-carbon urban areas, in order to construct a systematic and scientifically sound approach to further low-carbon strategies in urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chengdu, located at the western edge of the Sichuan Basin, is the provincial capital of Sichuan Province. The fertile and well-watered basin has given the city a long and splendid history, which has left significant and lasting imprints on its urban form, landscape and cultural life. In the planned economy period, Chengdu serviced as the economic, cultural, logistical and technological center for southwest China, and built a competitive and broad industrial base which now helps the city maintain its leading position in the region. In 2007, Chengdu was assigned as one of two pioneer cities in coordinating urban–rural development. This paper introduces the urban development of Chengdu as a historical city, summarizes the city’s economic growth, urban spatial transformation and infrastructure construction as a major city in western China, and discusses its recent efforts in coordinating urban–rural development as a pioneering city in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province in western China is the gateway to Tibet. It is also the major habitat for giant panda and the principal city with the largest total tourism economic output in western China. The energy requirement of tourism industry is calculated by combining the 7 energy intensities with tourist consumption data from the Chengdu Domestic Tourist Expenditure Survey in which over 50,000 tourists were involved during 1999–2004. The carbon dioxide emissions of tourism industry are calculated based on the method introduced by IPCC report. Then, decomposition analysis was used to identify key factors causing the change of carbon emission. From 1999 to 2004, the energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission of tourism industry in Chengdu increased from 1.8×107 GJ to 2.3×107 GJ and from 1.7×106 tons to 2.1×106 tons, respectively. The indirect energy requirements and indirect CO2 emissions dominate the total energy consumptions and total CO2 emissions, with an overwhelming percentage of over 90%. The transportation is the major contributor for energy consumption and carbon emission of tourism industry. The relative importance of the transportation and shopping tends to increase while the food and entertainment tends to decrease. Among the five factors affecting energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission in tourism, energy intensity, expenditure size and the industry size are generally found to be principal drivers of emission growth, whereas energy share and consumption structure are not found to have a sizable influence on the growth of tourism industry emissions. In addition, the energy intensity has a negative effect on the increase of CO2 levels while the expenditure size and the industry size have a positive effect on it. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This research examines the role of post-1999 'Develop the West' policies in promoting accelerated economic development in Chengdu and Chongqing, the two largest, spatially proximate metropolitan centers of western China. Differences between these two cities test theories regarding utilization of characteristics that flow from a place's location, history, political-economy, and cultural resources. Chengdu serves as the traditional capital of Sichuan province. The mountainous setting of Chongqing relegated it to a military-industrial complex dominated by state-owned enterprises. Its new autonomous status and completion of the Three Gorges Dam will solidify the city as the western edge of the Yangtze. It is argued that geographically reinforced historical cultural patterns form the basis of systemic problems. A key difference between the two cities lies in their different utilization of university research, a proxy for openness to information fueling change. Statistics and interviews accumulated in both cities flesh out this comparative examination of two major geographical bases for economic dynamism in west China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]