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Increasing human activities have greatly influenced the ecosystem and the use of ecological resources, and the unbalanced urban–rural development in China (urban and rural areas being two major bases of human activities) has always been accompanied by heterogeneous ecological effects. Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is an integrated indicator quantifying the human domination of productivity and harvest in the biosphere. Identifying the unbalanced constraints of urban and rural development on HANPP has become necessary for improving human–land relationships. This study analyzed the spatial distribution and regional differentiations of the HANPP in China in 2015 and investigated how HANPP and its components responded to unbalanced regional urban–rural development. The results show that the total amount of HANPP was 2.68 PgC and gradually decreased from the southeast to the northwest of China in 2015, representing 60.33% of the NPPpot. In addition, HANPPluc, harvest through cropland, livestock grazing, and forestry contributed 60.70%, 29.86%, 8.53%, and 0.91%, respectively, to the total HANPP, with HANPPluc playing the dominant role in 21 provinces. There was a significant differentiation (p < 0.05) in the spatial distribution of HANPP (gC/m2), HANPPharv (gC/m2), and HANPPluc (gC/m2), especially between the Huanyong Hu Line and the western–eastern part of China, fundamentally resulting from uneven regional development. In addition, biomass production–consumption decoupling existed in most regions in China, 17 provinces were identified as consumption type, and a universal positive correlation (p < 0.05) was identified between the production–consumption ratio of occupied biomass and HANPPharv (%HANPP). Different drive mechanisms were found between urban–rural development and HANPP, and each HANPP index was more likely to be affected by urban economy (UE), rural population (RP), and rural agricultural technology (RA) in China. The higher regional average nighttime light intensity, the proportion of the built-up area, and the urban road area corresponded with a large HANPPluc value. Conversely, HANPP would decrease as the proportion of urban green spaces increased. Furthermore, HANPP (%NPPpot) and HANPP (gC/m2) mostly depended on the rural development index, while HANPPluc and HANPPharv were mainly controlled by urban and rural development, respectively. Our findings help understand, first, how unbalanced regional development influences human-induced biomass occupation, the comprehensive urban ecological construction, and rural ecological restoration and, second, that the overall planning of urban–rural integration development must be strengthened to face greater ecological pressures in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air connectivity is a crucial factor for economic development, especially for a free port city such as Hong Kong. This paper examines the role changes of Hong Kong in providing connectivity for the international market that originates from regional airports in Mainland China. The time-dependent earliest arrival time method is employed to assess its connectivity levels compared with other Chinese air gateways in 1998 and 2018, with measurement of three indicators: accessibility, dependency, and centrality. Empirical evidence demonstrates that extensive progress of accessibility and dependency has been presented in both Hong Kong and other Chinese gateways as for liberal arrangements after 2001, while foreign transfers are still an inescapable theme to strengthen air connections. In addition, Hong Kong retained its hub status even while deemed inferior to Beijing and Shanghai in the international market of Mainland China, especially for the Northeast and East Coastal region and air travel to Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. What is more, although Hong Kong benefited from its massive traffic generation, major air gateways would be dispersedly located across Mainland China with the rise of central China, geographical proximity effect, and differential market cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessibility plays an important role in alleviating rural poverty. Previous studies have explored the relationship between accessibility and rural poverty, but they offer limited evidence of the collective influence of multiscale transport accessibility (town-level, county-level, and prefecture-level accessibility) and its nonlinear effects on rural poverty. This study adopted the gradient-boosting decision tree model to explore the nonlinear association and threshold effects of multiscale transport accessibility on the rural poverty incidence (RPI). We selected Huining, a poverty-stricken county in China, as a case study. The results show that multiscale transport accessibility collectively has larger predictive power than other variables. Specifically, town-level accessibility (12.97%) plays a dominant role in predicting the RPI, followed by county-level accessibility (9.50%) and prefecture-level accessibility (7.38%). We further identified the nonlinear association and effective ranges of multiscale transport accessibility to guide poverty-alleviation policy. Our results help inform policy and planning on sustainable poverty reduction and rural vitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterizing the availability of opportunities to residents has been a long-term aim in health care geographic investigation. It is important to measure the degree of inequity in health care accessibility and to identify underserved areas, due to the uneven distribution of health care services. In this study, JavaScript was used to calculate travel time based on Amap, as this can provide a more reliable data support to measure the health care accessibility in Xi'an communities, China. Based on the overall equity, herein, an attempt was made to quantify the equity of health care accessibility, and to identify health care underserved areas inside the different communities. Results show that the accessibility to low-level health care services is high in the northern areas and low in the southern areas, while the accessibility to high-level and comprehensive health care services shows a clear core-periphery spatial structure. Moreover, the overall equity of the health care accessibility is relatively low, and the inequity of high-level health care accessibility is further aggravated. Furthermore, the quantified equity of accessibility to high-level and comprehensive health care services in the central urban areas is better; however low-level health care services are relatively inadequate. There are significant differences among health care underserved areas, in particular, for the worst equity and the lowest accessibility areas (A1) and the worse equity and the lowest accessibility areas (B1) in high-level underserved areas. Notably, the sharing of health care services and the reasonable flow of health technical personnel among different levels of health institutions can make the high-level health care services in the central urban areas have a greater trickle effect on the surrounding areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of settlements isolation and land-use changes on poverty is often overlooked. This study explored the spatial pattern and impact of settlements isolation and land use changes on poverty in Guizhou, a mountainous province of China, based on a Pearson correlation analysis and geographically weighted regression (GWR). The results showed that the incidence of high poverty levels in the counties of Guizhou tended to move from the southwest to the southeast over the period of 2005–2015. Both settlements isolation and land use changes had an impact on poverty, and this effect displayed spatial heterogeneity. With other factors unchanged, a 1 m increase in settlements isolation was associated with a statistically significant 0.58% increase in poverty incidence. Changes in the area of crop land, water, and forest land had a significant impact on poverty. The authors suggest that in the process of resettlement, the distance between settlements should be kept less than 5000 m if possible. The government needs to further improve and implement preferential land use policies, with appropriate increases in the area of built-up land. • Settlements isolation needs more attention in poverty-stricken areas. • Poverty-stricken counties have higher settlement isolation. • Urbanization and ecological protection policies seems to promote poverty reduction. • Measures of poverty reduction for settlements and land use policies were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, China has developed from an economically closed country to a country that is highly dependent on foreign trade. From the perspective of spatiotemporal evolution, we analyze how port opening promoted China's reform and opening-up process. First, the port development process is divided into four periods. In the start-up period, the pilot open port policy created a platform for foreign cooperation and exchange. During the expansion period, port openings promoted the continuous optimization of the trade structure. In the cooperation period, port openings corresponded with the adjustment of China's overall industrial structure. During the optimization period, port openings provided guarantees for the implementation of a national development strategy. Second, we analyze the distribution of ports and their relationship with cross-border logistics and passenger flow. Based on data of foreign trade and passenger flow, a port openness degree measurement model includes port logistics intensity, passenger flow intensity and port city foreign-trade volume is constructed. There are significant types, geographical differences and grade differences of ports' openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban-rural integrated area in Sanshui District of Foshan City was selected for research, and the impact of landscape pattern around the No.269 provincial highway was analyzed based on the land-use data in 2014 using the spatial analysis in GIS and the moving window method. The results showed that: ①within the scope of a 2 km-range buffer zone, with a low degree of heterogeneity, land for construction use and water area were the dominant land-use types, while with a high degree of fragmentation, cultivated land, wooded land, grassland, garden land, land for other farm uses, and land unused were scattered; ② the 250-m square moving window could well detect the change characteristics of landscape pattern on both sides of the toad; ③ the gradient analysis of landscape pattern in urban-rural integrated area, which was conducted with the aid of a 750-m transect on both sides of the road, indicated that there were significant differences between landscape indexes both in the urban-rural integrated area and on both sides of the road; ④ the road that had an obvious cutting and fragmentation impact on the landscape was an important factor leading to the increasing fragmentation and heterogeneity to regional landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have established the link between the built environment and travel behavior. However, fewer studies have focused on environmental costs of travel (such as CO 2 emissions) with respect to residential self-selection. Combined with the application of TIQS (Travel Intelligent Query System), this study develops a structural equations model (SEM) to examine the effects of the built environment and residential self-selection on commuting trips and their related CO 2 emissions using data from 2015 in Guangzhou, China. The results demonstrate that the effect of residential self-selection also exists in Chinese cities, influencing residents’ choice of living environments and ultimately affecting their commute trip CO 2 emissions. After controlling for the effect of residential self-selection, built environment variables still have significant effects on CO 2 emissions from commuting although some are indirect effects that work through mediating variables (car ownership and commuting trip distance). Specifically, CO 2 emissions are negatively affected by land-use mix, residential density, metro station density and road network density. Conversely, bus stop density, distance to city centers and parking availability near the workplace have positive effects on CO 2 emissions. To promote low carbon travel, intervention on the built environment would be effective and necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many developing countries, massive investment in transit infrastructure is concurrent with the proliferation of automobiles. Planners expect that investment can slow the growth of auto ownership. However, few studies have examined the relationships between transit access and auto ownership in developing countries, whereas research in developed countries offers mixed findings and the outcomes may not be applicable to developing countries. This study employs a random effect ordered probit model on data collected from Guangzhou residents in 2011–2012. We find that transit access is negatively associated with auto ownership, after controlling for demographics and other built environment variables. This result suggests that, although income is the dominant driver for auto ownership in growing developing countries, transit investment is a promising strategy to slow the growth of auto ownership. This study also highlights the importance of addressing spatial dependency in clustered data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rise in carbon emissions in China from the transportation sector. Topics discussed include environmental challenges associated with carbon emissions; relationship between travel modes and greenhouse gas emissions; and impacts of land use and transportation policies on travel patterns and associated carbon emissions.

Under the context of economy new normal and rapid urbanization, the shift of economic growth, structural adjustment pains as well as pre-stimulus digestion comes coincidentally. The boundary red line of urban growth, the red line of the number of basic farms and the ecology red line makes the local to conserve land. Land stock for village and town construction is a huge amount of potential resources. Redevelopment of land for village and town construction provides ensured land security for the smooth progress of urbanization. Combining village and town construction land use characteristics and making in-depth analysis of the difficulties in the redevelopment of village and town construction and its inner mechanism, policies and suggestions were proposed for the redevelopment of village and town construction land in terms of land property, land price, market allocation, planning, surveillance and so on, so as to provide valuable reference for the smooth redevelopment of village and town construction land, and the system design of villages and towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The distribution characteristics of land consolidation projects were analyzed from the new perspective of geomorphic regions. • The policy improvement of China's land consolidation was proposed according to implementation and distribution characteristics of land consolidation projects and changes of urban–rural human–land relationship in China. • Stop advancing land reclamation to increase cultivated land in China; • Further strengthen cropland consolidation and high-standard cropland construction to achieve food security in China. • Rural settlement consolidation should be carefully conducted in remote areas under the background of urbanization in China. Land consolidation plays an important role in increasing cultivated land, improving cultivated land quality and the ecological environment, and promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. However, under the conditions of three decades of land consolidation being conducted and changing urban–rural human–land relationship, the areas of improvement in the land consolidation policy of China must be studied. This article analyzes the implementation and distribution characteristics of the land consolidation project completed in Shaanxi Province in 2018. Results show that land consolidation projects in Shaanxi are mainly land reclamation projects, cropland consolidation projects, and high-standard cropland consolidation projects. The increased cultivated land is mainly from land reclamation projects and cropland consolidation projects. The land consolidation projects in Aeolian Plateau Area, Loess Plateau Area, and Da Ba Mountain Area are mainly land reclamation projects. The land reclamation projects in Guan Zhong Plain Area and Qing Ling Mountain Area account for a large proportion. The spatial distribution of rural settlement consolidation projects, and rural settlement consolidation and land reclamation projects are mainly located in Guan Zhong Plain Area and distributed in the boundary area of Guan Zhong Plain Area and Loess Plateau Area. According to the characteristics of land consolidation projects and the changes of urban–rural human–land relationship, China should be prudent in or stop advancing land reclamation to increase cultivated land; cropland consolidation and high-standard cropland construction are vital ways to achieve China's food security; and rural settlement consolidation should be carefully conducted in remote areas under the background of urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial pattern of rural poverty and its influencing factors are unique in regions located in the "double zone", overlaying the Loess Plateau landform and interprovincial border socioeconomic zone. Using Huining County, located in the interprovincial border area of the Loess Plateau, as a case study, this paper examines the spatial heterogeneity of rural poverty patterns and poverty-causing factors by using geographically weighted regression (GWR) modeling. The potential accessibility indicator is employed to identify the formative mechanism of rural poverty. The results show that rural poverty is significantly correlated with county-level accessibility, water resource accessibility, and town-level accessibility. County-level accessibility and town-level accessibility have significant border effects on rural poverty. The arid characteristics in certain areas of the Loess Plateau mean that the impact of water resource accessibility on the incidence of rural poverty is second only to that of county-level accessibility. Forestland resources have a positive correlation with the incidence of rural poverty in the region dominated by farming. Finally, targeted poverty reduction policies are proposed based on the results of the analysis of poverty-causing factors. The findings derived from this paper can help other developing countries in designing their own poverty reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lots of straw resources are abandoned or burned in the open in China. It not only discharges harmful gas and carbon dioxide into the air, but also wastes huge energy. Irrigation water availability is a key factor that influences the crop yield and corresponding straw resources which is facing a severe crisis in most regions around the world. Therefore, it is very essential to conduct research about the potential benefit of utilizing straw resources from future water availability limit perspective. Xi'an City is taken as an example which is the most developed city in the west of China. This study predicts the future crop yield, and assesses the potential energy, environmental, and socioeconomic benefit of two major straw resources including winter wheat and summer maize under 6 water availability scenarios. Sensitivity analysis is further carried out for the impact of feed-in-tariff and material cost on the biomass power plant revenue and critical value determination. Key results include (1) the straw resources could generate about 5.65 × 108 kWh electricity, save about 24.33 × 104 ton raw coal, and reduce 48.12 × 104 ton carbon dioxide emission; (2) Farmers could gain about 1.35 × 108 CNY; (3) Conversion from thermal to biomass power plant could generate net benefit about 1.89 × 108 CNY considering the electricity selling benefit increase about 2.24 × 108 CNY, carbon dioxide emission cost reduction about 0.72 × 108 CNY, material purchase cost increase 0.69 × 108 CNY, and other input cost increase 0.38 × 108 CNY; (4) Higher water availability leads to more energy, environmental, and socioeconomic benefit; (5) Feed-in-tariff has to increase about 0.012 CNY/kWh for every 10 CNY/ton material cost increase to ensure the positive benefit of biomass power plant. In general, effective utilization of straw resources can not only increase farmers' income and power plant benefit, but also reduce fossil energy use and protect the environment. • Impact of water availability on potential benefit of straw utilization is assessed. • Benefit is fully assessed from energy, environmental, and socioeconomic perspectives. • Straw utilization contributes to economic benefit increase and environment protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many cities have made massive investments on rail systems to substitute transit for driving. Some studies have considered the confounding effect of attitudes in the connections between rail transit and travel behavior. However, they often focused on the average effect of rail transit and assumed that individuals' responses to transit improvements do not vary by their tastes. Using the 2014 data from Xi'an in China, this study explores the interaction effect between metro transit (heavy rail) and the propensity (i.e., predicted probability) of living in neighborhoods with metro transit on transit use. The propensity is positively associated with commute by metro transit and bus. Further, individuals with a strong propensity use transit equivalently no matter whether they live near metro transit, but metro transit tends to promote transit commute for those with a weak propensity of living near metro transit. Overall, building a rail line helps enhance transit ridership. Planners should also consider the variation in responses by individuals with different tastes when using policies to shape urban travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the spatial-temporal evolution of and regional differences in CO 2 emissions from transportation in China during the period of 2000–2012 based on a transportation carbon-emission model. A two-way fixed effect model was constructed to examine socio-economic impacts and impacts of urban form and transportation development on CO 2 emissions from transportation in China. The results indicated that the total and per capita CO 2 emissions from transportation were growing at an annual rate of 9.29% and 8.69%, respectively, and that regional differences were inconsistent during this period. Most socio-economic, urban form and transportation development factors had a significant positive effect on per capita CO 2 emissions from transportation. Socio-economic development and increased income were the primary driving factors for the growth of per capita CO 2 emissions from transportation. Urban population density, the size of built-up areas and urban road density should be controlled by planning to eliminate increased per capita CO 2 emissions from transportation. Urban public transportation had a significant negative effect on per capita CO 2 emissions from transportation, while the effect of car ownership was not significant, which indicated that providing well-developed urban public transportation and advocating behavior changes regarding travel were important ways to reduce per capita CO 2 emissions from transportation. The findings of this study have important implications for reducing the growth of CO 2 emissions from transportation in China and constructing low-carbon and sustainable city space environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies regarding the effects of rail transit on auto ownership have yet to disentangle the influences of the built environment surrounding stations and residential self-selection from the impact of rail transit itself. There is also limited knowledge on the effects of rail investments in developing countries on ownership of mobility instruments, which has recently proliferated because of economic growth. Using the 2014 data from Xi’an, this study explores the joint influences of metro transit on the ownership of autos, bikes, ebikes, and motorcycles. The cross-sectional analysis shows that metro is negatively associated with auto ownership and ebike ownership whereas it has a positive association with bike ownership. The quasi-longitudinal analysis indicates that moving into metro neighborhoods is negatively associated with the changes of auto and ebike ownerships. These results suggest that metro development helps curb the growth of autos and fight against the negative consequences of ebikes, and has the potential to achieve sustainable travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of transport infrastructure is characterized by intensive capital input, intensive energy consumption, and pollution emissions. Against the background of the continuous intensification of resource and energy constraints in China. Therefore, the analysis of China’s regional transport efficiency and its determinants has practical significance. This paper attempts to evaluate regional total factor transport efficiency in China based on the Super-SBM DEA model considering undesirable output and explores the influence factors of transport efficiency in China during the period 1995–2012. The empirical results indicate that during the research period, most provinces in China are not performing efficiently in transport systems. Additionally, the overall average level of China’s total factor transport efficiency is low and the spatial pattern of the total factor transport efficiency demonstrates a declining trend from eastern to western China, which coincides with the spatial pattern of economic development in China. The analysis of the influence factors by the regression model shows that economic development and government influence can decrease overall transport efficiency, while industrial structure, population density, and geographical position can influence transport efficiency. The influence of these factors varies by region. Finally, this paper provides policy recommendations to improve transport efficiency in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term poverty data can support accurate decision-making. This study demonstrates an accurate and reliable method for identifying poverty areas and predicting poverty incidence based on night time light remote-sensing data and machine learning methods. Using data of poverty counties and poverty incidence in Guizhou Province of China as the training dataset, we show how to use machine learning to identify poverty counties and predict poverty incidence in the Yunnan-Guangxi-Guizhou Rocky desertification area. The identification accuracy of poverty-stricken counties was 76.5%. The root mean squared error, mean absolute error, and R2 values of the poverty incidence rates were 5.01, 4.04, and 0.60, respectively. Using data from 2015 to verify the trained model, the R2 value of the predicted and actual values of poverty incidence reached 0.95. With the progress in machine learning and night light remote sensing, poverty mapping combined with night time lights and machine learning can compensate for the data gap in deprived areas and provide a decision-making basis for sustainable development in poverty-stricken areas. • Night time lights and machine learning can make long-term poverty predictions. • Statistical survey data bridge different types of night time lights. • The predicted results can analyse the poverty at the county level. • The promotion of the model needs to consider the local poverty line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The joint landscape ecological risk as well as ecological corridors for ecological restoration area identification is of great significance to the past evolution and future development of landscapes. Ecological risks were assessed based on the landscape pattern and functional changes in Pengyang County in 2000, 2010, and 2020; ecological restoration areas were divided based on ecological risks and security pattern. Results showed that the ecological risk types in Pengyang County were mainly low risk from 2000 to 2010 and distributed in the central region, while the high-risk areas increased from 2010 to 2020 and were concentrated in the southern residential area. According to a comprehensive assessment of the landscape ecological risks, an ecological security pattern consisting of 17 ecological source points and 34 potential ecological corridors with an average length of 6.57 km was identified. Three ecological restoration areas were eventually identified: mining restoration areas, mountain restoration area, and urban restoration area. Our results would provide an important perspective for the sustainable development of regional natural landscape resources., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Understanding the driving forces behind built-up land expansion is crucial in urban planning and management. Using the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration as research area, four landscape metrics were used to analyze landscape characteristics of urban expansion from 1990 to 2015. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to study the characteristics of built-up land expansion, while geographical detector was employed to identify the driving forces of urban land growth and their interactions. The results show the extent of built-up land has been increasing, the structure has become more complex, the level of fragmentation has been increasing, and the aggregation degree is in decline. The built-up landscape index shows spatial heterogeneity occurring in the core and peripheral towns of cities, as well as in the core and peripheral areas of the entire region. Also, changes in the built-up landscape index indicate increased spatial aggregation occurring in the past 25 years. Results from the geographical detector show natural, socio-economic, and transportation-related factors have substantial influence on built-up land expansion. Elevation, slope, population density, change in population density, and road network density were shown to have high influencing power. The influencing powers of slope and change in population density were also found to be different from other factors, highlighting their important role in urban development. Also, there were two types of interactions found, enhance nonlinear and enhance bivariate interactions, indicating the compounding influence of interactions between significant determinants. This study provides a new perspective and methodological approach in evaluating the driving forces behind built-up land expansion and their interactions.

Taking the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration, with its rapid economic and social development and dramatic changes in land use, as an example with which to conduct this research, this paper analyzes the influence of traffic accessibility on land use and socioeconomic development by using Internet maps, points of interest (POI), and data about land use and socioeconomic development. The results of this study are as follows: (1) the calculation results of traffic accessibility can reflect the real situation because spatial distribution has an obvious feature of circle-like structure, and the development level of each township has high consistency; (2) major change characteristics in land use are that cultivated and forest lands are decreasing, and construction land is increasing, and it is obvious that the increase of construction land is featured by spatial autocorrelation and clusters of construction areas along the city borders; (3) traffic accessibility has a significant impact on land use status and changes and socioeconomic development, while the number of facilities has weak impact on land use, which is a reflection of advanced infrastructure in the urban agglomeration; and (4) the construction of transport infrastructure promotes the transformation of land use from water to construction land, therefore, more emphasis should be placed on protecting the river system in future infrastructure construction so as to improve the ecological benefits in the river basin., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.