Modern tourism geography in China began in the late 1970s. After sustained exploration and development, it has made remarkable achievements in theoretical development, talent cultivation, and practical advancement. However, with ongoing societal change, tourism geography in China faces unprecedented challenges. How to better serve national strategies and industrial development has become an important question of the times. This paper provides an in-depth discussion of the discipline’s internal logic of formation, the evolution of research paradigms, knowledge spillover effects, and the construction of its disciplinary system in the new era. The findings are as follows: 1) After decades of practical exploration and theoretical development, the theoretical system of Chinese tourism geography has matured, its research agenda has continued to deepen, and its capacity to support national strategic needs has strengthened markedly. 2) Tourism geography has consistently taken the tourism human-environment relationship as its central thread, shifting from an early emphasis on “land” to a focus on the mechanisms of human-land interaction. 3) The field’s research paradigm has gradually moved from experience-based induction to an approach that gives equal weight to theory and empirical analysis, forming a methodological system grounded in the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods and the cross-validation of multiple data sources; this work has also generated knowledge spillovers to economics, management, and sociology. 4) Driven jointly by national and regional needs, talent cultivation and institutional restructuring, and shifts in research paradigms and themes, interdisciplinary integration has increasingly become a major development trend in tourism geography in China. 5) The inheritance and future development of Chinese tourism geography should remain problem-oriented, strengthen technology-enabled research, and concentrate on key tasks including talent development, innovation in foundational theory, optimization of the disciplinary system, and service to major national strategies.

This study aims to investigate how environmental regulations affect the green efficiency of water resources in tourism, and to verify whether technological innovation plays a mediating role in this relationship. Using panel data from 31 provincial-level administrative regions in China from 2012 to 2021 (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan due to incomplete and inconsistent statistics), this study first introduces the tourism grey water footprint and constructs an evaluation index system for the green efficiency of water resources in tourism. The slack-based measure (SBM) model is employed to measure the green efficiency of water resources in tourism. Then, with environmental regulation as the core explanatory variable, a fixed-effect panel regression model is constructed to examine its direct impact on tourism’s green water efficiency. Furthermore, a mediating effect model is adopted to explore the transmission mechanism, with technological innovation as the mediating variable. A series of robustness tests are conducted to ensure the reliability of the estimation results. The results show that: 1) The overall level of green efficiency of water resources in China’s tourism industry is moderate, with an annual average value of 0.475 during 2012—2021, showing a steady upward trend. Significant regional disparities exist among eastern, central and western China, presenting a concave pattern characterized by ‘lower in the central region and higher in the eastern and western regions’. 2) Environmental regulation has a significant positive effect on the green efficiency of water resources in tourism, and this result is robust after controlling for industrial structure, population size, resource endowment and other variables. Regional heterogeneity tests show that environmental regulation plays a significant role in central and western China, while the effect is not significant in eastern China. 3) Technological innovation plays a partial mediating role in the process whereby environmental regulation promotes the green efficiency of water resources in tourism. Environmental regulation stimulates the innovation compensation effect, encouraging tourism-related enterprises to carry out technological innovation, and such innovation further improves the green efficiency of water use in tourism. Environmental regulation can directly and significantly improve the green efficiency of water resources in tourism, and indirectly enhance such efficiency by promoting technological innovation. The implementation intensity and policy effects of environmental regulation vary across regions. It is recommended that eastern regions focus on high-quality innovation-driven development, while central and western regions should strengthen environmental regulation intensity and optimize policy implementation. Promoting coordinated improvement of environmental regulation and technological innovation is an effective path to upgrade the green efficiency of water resources in tourism and realize the high-quality and sustainable development of tourism.

Village industrial land is an important support for the development of new rural industries and new formats in the new era, and it is of great significance to promote the revitalization of rural industries. This study analyzes the spatial characteristics of China’s village industrial land use in 2020 by using the land change survey data based on the Third National Land Survey, and examines the driving mechanism of village industrial land use changes at different spatial scales by using the Geodetector model. The results show: 1) The average scale of village industrial land in counties is 821.47 hm², and the per capita village industrial land is 43.52 m²/person, both of which have a significant positive correlation in spatial distribution. 2) At the regional level, the scale of village industrial land in the eastern region is significantly higher than in other regions, and both the Northeast and Eastern regions have a per capita village industrial land scale exceeding 60 m²/person. The Theil index indicates that the differences within the four major regions dominate the formation of national differences. At the provincial level, only Hebei and Shandong have industrial land scales exceeding 2×10⁵hm², and Qinghai has the largest internal differences in village industrial land. 3) At the national level, rural permanent population, topographic relief and rural per capita disposable income factor have a greater driving force on the scale of village industrial land. At the regional level, urbanization rate, topographic relief and rural per capita disposable income have a greater impact on the scale of village industrial land in the western region, while other regions are mainly affected by rural resident population, topographic relief, and cultivated land area. The interactive detection shows that the scale of village industrial land in various regions is also affected by multiple factors, but there are heterogeneity characteristics. Focusing on the needs of rural industrial revitalization in the new era, this study analyzes the characteristics and trends of rural development in various regions, and puts forward policy suggestions to promote the integration of village industrial land and intensive and economical utilization.

In this study, 115 resource-based cities were selected as cases, and an evaluation index system of potential, correlation and resilience was constructed based on the adaptive cycle theory. On the basis of analyzing the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of three-dimensional attributes, the evolution stages of resource-based cities were identified, and then the evolution characteristics of each stage were analyzed. The results show that: 1) The growth of potential, correlation and resilience of resource-based cities shows a phased evolution feature of “slow growth in the early stage and rapid growth in the later stage”. But there are significant differences in spatial distribution; Among them, the spatial dispersion of potential is obvious, the correlation shows a decreasing trend from the southeast coast to the northwest inland, and the resilience shows a spatial agglomeration characteristic of “coastal and river”. 2) Under the comprehensive action of internal and external factors, the development and evolution of resource-based cities are in the stages of exploitation-conservation, conservation-release, release-reorganization in the adaptive cycle. The cities in exploitation-conservation stage are mainly growth-oriented and mature ones, mainly located in energy rich areas, such as Shanxi, Gansu and Inner Mongolia. The cities in conservation-release stage are mainly declining ones, concentrated in the old industrial base of northeast China. The cities in release-reorganization stage cover all types and are mainly distributed in the eastern part of the Hu-Huanyong Line. 3) The different stages correspond to different development and evolution characteristics.The cities in the exploitation-consrvation stage have obvious path dependence and extension characteristics, and their potential, correlation and resilience are on the rise; In the process of development, problems such as economic recession, environmental deterioration and population contraction occur in the exploitation-release stage, and the three-dimensional attribute value of the cities is in a declining trend. In the release-reorganization stage, the cities realize the renewal and reorganization of the elements, forming a new development path, and its three-dimensional attribute value recovers after the decline.

In response to the current bottlenecks in China’s territorial space planning in dealing with extreme flood events, such as lagging response, incomplete control systems, and insufficient land guarantee for disaster prevention, this paper aims to explore the optimization path of comprehensive disaster prevention planning. Taking the Hetao Area in Shenzhen as the object, by sorting out the transmission relationship of disaster prevention planning at all levels of territorial space, it is proposed to integrate the “high-risk disaster avoidance zone” into the “three zones and three lines” control system. The study utilized the data from the first national comprehensive risk census of natural disasters to assess the flood risk in the Hetao area. The study precisely identified the high-risk points within the Hetao area and constructed an optimized disaster prevention design plan from four dimensions: spatial resilience, infrastructure fortification, land composite utilization, and multi-level sponge systems. Specifically, this multi-dimensional approach effectively tackles the scarcity of disaster-prevention land by transforming rigid, single-use urban spaces into flexible safety buffers. It shifts the traditional passive response model into a proactive spatial intervention.This optimization strategy achieves a deep coupling of disaster risk control and the spatial planning base map, significantly enhancing the comprehensive resilience of high-density urban areas in response to super-standard floods, providing a scientific empirical reference for disaster prevention and mitigation planning in similar regions in China.

Based on county-level data in China from 2000 to 2020, this study employs the coupling coordination degree model to measure the level of coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction and examines its regional differences and spatiotemporal evolution. Using the STIRPAT model, panel quantile regression is further applied to quantify the differentiated and dynamic impacts of socioeconomic and natural factors on the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction at the county level. The results show that during the study period, the level of coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in Chinese counties exhibited a continuous decline, and regional disparities expanded over time. The coordination level shows significant spatial autocorrelation across counties. High-high spatial agglomerations display a contiguous distribution pattern, whereas low-low spatial agglomerations are relatively few in number and exhibit a scattered distribution pattern. Population size, per capita GDP, and industrial value added exert inhibitory effects on the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, whereas fiscal revenue, patent applications, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) exert significant positive effects on the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. The coordination level exhibits a U-shaped nonlinear relationship with economic development. Fiscal revenue in counties with low and medium coordination levels improves the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. The effects of the influencing factors on the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction exhibit spatial heterogeneity. Population size shows a negative correlation with the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in most counties. Vegetation coverage plays a significant role in promoting the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in north China and east China. Regions with higher ventilation coefficient (VC) facilitate the diffusion of pollutants; however, the effect remains limited in northwestern China.

Based on firm-level and industrial chain perspectives, this study employs methods such as standard deviational ellipse and QAP regression analysis to examine the spatiotemporal patterns, industry structure, and influencing factors of global shipping company mergers and acquisitions from 1997 to 2024. The results indicate that: 1) Global shipping M&A events are concentrated in Europe, East and Southeast Asia, Central America, and North America, with significant yearly fluctuations in their number. 2) Both acquirers and targets exhibit a clear “northwest-southeast” orientation in their standard deviational ellipses, with their centers of distribution shifting continuously southeastward, though the spatial pattern of targets changes more gradually. 3) The industrial structure of global shipping M&A continues to adjust, showing an extension and integration trend along the shipping industrial chain. Freight and passenger shipping segments display distinct structural characteristics in M&A activities. 4) M&As are more likely to occur between countries and regions that are geographically proximate, linguistically similar, economically close, and have comparable shipping network connectivity, yet exhibit significant disparities in shipping scale and external dependence. Furthermore, the shipping M&A network demonstrates notable investment inertia and path dependence.

Since the advent of the “Anthropocene”, the multifaceted interactions and impacts of global climate change, intensive human activities, and information intelligence have intensified. The global human-earth system and its spatial patterns are undergoing significant challenges in relational restructuring and functional reconstruction, while modern geographical research faces an urgent need for theoretical innovation and paradigm transformation. This paper focuses on establishing the “Four-Dimensional Integration Model of Geographical Science-Technology-Engineering-Practice” (referred to as the Geo-STEP model), systematically elaborating its theoretical connotations, four-dimensional interaction mechanisms, and innovative applications. The study demonstrates that the Geo-STEP model is a systematic, comprehensive, and interconnected modern geographical methodology system, which emphasizes multidimensional interconnections, multi-system coupling, and multi-scenario coordination, forming an organic whole with multiple couplings of geographical science, technology, engineering, and practice. Its transmission logic generally follows the universal paradigm of “scientific cognition (S)-technological innovation (T)-engineering implementation (E)-practical feedback (P)”. Geographical science (S) is the theoretical foundation of the Geo-STEP model, geographical technology (T) is the innovation engine of the Geo-STEP model, geographical engineering (E) is the implementation carrier of the Geo-STEP model, geographical practice (P) is the value embodiment of the Geo-STEP model, and the 4 dimensions of the Geo-STEP model (S-T-E-P) form a complete knowledge action loop. In the experiment of the National Academy of Rural Revitalization (Lankao) and its “Geographical Engineering Academy”, the author achieved the integrated development of Geo-STEP through the innovative “three in one linkage” model of combining science and engineering, integrating science and education, and combining school and local areas, and achieved significant results in serving the national rural revitalization strategy and promoting the interdisciplinary integration of geographical science and engineering. The paper analyzes the application scenarios of the Geo-STEP model in key areas such as territorial spatial planning, the Yellow River Basin strategy, rural revitalization strategy, and geographical education, preliminarily validating its unique advantages and comprehensive capabilities in analyzing and addressing complex human-earth interaction issues. It provides theoretical references and practical paradigms for the optimization and reconstruction of the geographical science system and disciplinary system under the spatiotemporal patterns of the “Anthropocene” and the “Human-Earth Sphere”.

The integration of culture and tourism is a key component of Chinese-style modernization. In the digital era, online flow has surpassed traditional resource endowments and become a core driver of local development and culture-tourism integration. Through platformization and algorithmization, flow reshapes tourism space and generates a flow “carnival” dominated by algorithms and mass participation. However, the irrational pursuit of flow by small and medium-sized cities has led to a “frenzy” state, exposing tensions between flow logic and the sustainable development of local tourism. Existing studies have discussed the emergence and diffusion of influencer-driven tourism, yet they lack in-depth analysis of the paradoxes behind flow and their local embeddedness. Based on the theory of spatial production, this paper systematically examines the internal relations among flow, locality and tourism in the digital era. It analyzes the action logics of governments, platforms, tourists, and residents within flow networks, and explains how flow, as a factor of spatial production, restructures tourism geographical space. The study compares internet-famous officials and grassroots influencers in terms of their popularity paths, resource sources and action logics, finds that both face challenges in converting flow into long-term development momentum. It identifies 4 core paradoxes of digital-era tourism: distortion of tourism essence, silencing of local characteristics, misplacement of institutional support, and imbalance in flow adaptation. And it analyzes their manifestations and formation mechanisms. The findings reveal that the alienation from flow “carnival” to “frenzy” reflects an imbalance between digital capital and administrative power in spatial production. Selective flow allocation by platforms and performance evaluation pressure on local governments jointly drive irrational competition for flow, and the 4 paradoxes stem from a fundamental mismatch between flow logic and local development logic. The study argues that flow itself is not the root cause of tourism problems, and that resolving digital-era tourism paradoxes requires the realization of “flow justice”, which ensures fair rights for different regions and diverse actors in flow generation, allocation, conversion, and benefit sharing. Achieving flow justice requires a collaborative governance system involving government, platforms, and the public. Governments should shift from chasing flow to improving infrastructure and public services, platforms should optimize algorithm rules to balance fairness and efficiency, and the public should participate in governance through institutionalized channels. Only by closely coupling human emotional experience, local resource endowments, and external support, can short-term flow be transformed into endogenous drivers of local culture and tourism development. The issue of flow justice will become a frontier topic across geography, tourism studies, and related disciplines.

The transformation and development of rural areas serve as a significant driving force for rural modernization. Quantitatively exploring the impact of the transformation on modernization level (ML) is crucial for advancing rural transformation and enhancing the modernization level. Based on field survey data from 1 155 specialized villages (SV) in Henan Province between 2008 and 2017, this study analyzed the spatio-temporal evolution and spatial agglomeration characteristics of the transformation and development level (TDL) and ML. A spatial econometric model was employed to explore the degree of influence of the TDL on ML and the spatial spillover effect. The study findings are as follows: 1) From 2008 to 2017, the TDL in Henan Province’s SVs showed an increasing trend, but the coefficient of variation rose from 0.214 in 2008 to 0.307 in 2017, indicating growing polarization. The TDL was predominantly low to medium, with a generally low development level, exhibiting a north-high, south-low distribution pattern. Spatial agglomeration was significant, although the degree of agglomeration gradually decreased, with the high-density core area evolving from a ‘point core’ to a ‘face-like’ distribution. 2) The ML of SVs followed a similar trend to the TDL, with relatively smaller spatial differences, primarily low to medium grades, and a north-high, south-low spatial pattern. The agglomeration was notable and spread from the northern and central regions to the rest of the province, although the degree of agglomeration gradually weakened. Notably, the agglomeration level around Jiaozuo, Zhengzhou, and Xinxiang in the north increased and spread to multiple areas. 3) The TDL of SVs had a significant positive impact on the ML. Additionally, there was a clear spatial spillover effect observed in both 2008 and 2017, with each 1% increase in the TDL of SVs contributing to increases of 0.251% and 0.121% in the ML of neighboring areas, respectively. 4) On the foundation of economic development, factors such as transportation level, industrial upgrading, developmental vitality, topography, and geographical location directly propel the TDL of SVs while indirectly driving the improvement of ML, ultimately shaping the spatial pattern of ML in SVs.

Promoting the development of specialized and advantageous industries constitutes a crucial initiative for advancing rural industrial prosperity and comprehensive revitalization. As a fundamental spatial unit, villages play a key role in the development of rural specialized industries. Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms driving specialized villages’ transformation proves essential to operationalize rural revitalization and build a strong agriculture. This need is heightened by global supply chain restructuring and intensifying climate change, as well as domestic challenges such as fragmented industrial distribution, resource bottlenecks, and low production efficiency. Extant studies have extensively examined the processes, mechanisms, and impacts of specialized village transformation across multiple spatiotemporal scales. Process studies characterize industrial operations through production system perspective. Mechanism analyses pinpoint drivers spanning entrepreneurial, geographic, institutional, and resource dimensions, supported by specialization theory. Impact evaluation prioritized income effects on rural households, with spatial analyses revealing cluster expansion, knowledge diffusion, and eco-production spillovers. While existing studies have identified key aspects of specialized village transformation, critical gaps persist in integrated theoretical frameworks, and the regional variations and sustainability of these transformation models remain to be explored in depth. To address these gaps, future studies should integrate multidisciplinary perspectives to develop a comprehensive analytical framework. This involves: 1) Analyzing transformation processes through multiscale resource linkages, multi-stakeholder interactions, and multidimensional factor restructuring; 2) Investigating transformation mechanisms via factor interdependencies and driver cascades; 3) Assessing transformation effects through integrated metrics across social-ecological dimensions and spatial scales. Such advancements will ultimately generate novel perspectives of rural transformation, provide actionable insights for place-based strategies to cultivate specialized industries and achieve rural revitalization comprehensively.

Traditional village is not only a vital part of cultural heritage but also a significant vehicle for rural economic development. Against the backdrop of urban-rural integration, this study selects 3 tourism-driven traditional villages as the research subjects, and employs a combination of quantitative measurement and qualitative analysis to explore the production logic of the “human-place-industry” synergy in traditional villages. The study found that: 1) The livelihood transformation of the production subjects serves as the driving mechanism for the “human-land-industry” synergy. The livelihood transformation of traditional villages can be summarized as the resource reconstruction type from land dependence to capital drive, the cultural endogenous type from cultural accumulation to market empowerment, and the policy synergistic type from policy guidance to multi-dimensional linkage; 2) The factor reconstruction of the production carrier is the characterization schema of “human-land-industry” synergy. The production process will be reflected in the spatial form, deconstructing the traditional village schematic language system, using the schematic context to lay down the logic of spatial formation, schematic grammar to explore the order of spatial organization, and the schematic vocabulary to reshape the spatial combination of symbols. 3) The integration of industrial formats in the production system constitutes a symbiotic pathway of “human-land-industry” synergy. Utilizing the “human” subject consciousness and integrating the “land” resource elements, and the production of the “industry” reacts on the “human” production. At the same time, the production of “industry” reacts to the “human” production body and “land” production carrier, constituting a virtuous cycle of “human-land-industry” system synergy.

Strengthening specialized industry holds significant importance for advancing rural industrial revitalization and promoting integrated urban-rural development. Building upon actor-network theory, this article constructs an actor-network analysis framework for the transformation of specialized planting industry, exploring the process and mechanisms of mango industry transformation in Tiandong County, Guangxi, under government leadership. The study reveals: 1) The transformation of Tiandong County’s mango industry progressed through distinct phases: exploratory inception, gradual development, rapid expansion, and steady progression. This complex process involved the construction of an actor network under local government leadership. By focusing on key issues and coordinating interests, the local government integrated administrative, scientific research, market, and social resources. These combined inputs propelled the mango industry’s shift from fragmented, extensive operations toward scaled, specialized, standardized, branded, industrialized, and clustered production. 2) Throughout this process, intricate network relationships emerged among heterogeneous actors. Local government remained the core actor, research institutes provided sustained technological support, market capital and public participation became increasingly diverse, and the role of non-human actors grew increasingly prominent. 3) The key to advancing the transformation of county-level specialized planting industry lies in leveraging resource and environmental suitability. Through stakeholder collaboration and factor integration, it is essential to establish robust mechanisms for industrial co-cultivation, brand co-creation, benefit sharing, and value co-creation among diverse actors.

Rural areas in environmentally sensitive zones face the contradiction between ecological conservation and industrial growth, making industrial transformation an inevitable pathway for development. However, few studies have empirically examined whether such transformation can truly be achieved in these unique rural contexts through real-world case analyses. This article takes Shuangwan Village in Suzhou City as a typical case study, constructing a theoretical framework for rural industrial transformation from the perspective of actor-network theory (ANT). Through field investigations and hybrid coding methods, the processes and mechanisms of Shuangwan Village’s industrial transformation are explored. The findings reveal: 1) Shuangwan Village underwent 3 phases of industrial transformation—industrialization, agricultural specialization, and agriculture-tourism integration—with varying degrees of participation and heterogeneous roles played by 3 categories of actors: natural environments, institutional conditions, and social agents. The industrialization phase failed due to ecological degradation and regulatory dissent, yet the preserved ecological foundation created opportunities for subsequent transformations. The innovative visions of rural elites and the practical feedback from villagers emerged as critical to successful transitions. 2) Non-human actors, such as the natural environment and environmental regulations, participated in the rural industrial transformation in environmentally sensitive areas to varying degrees, exerting heterogeneous effects through different translation processes. Villages in environmentally sensitive areas possess the potential for industrial transformation like other villages; however, due to the complex interplay of internal and external factors, such transformations face greater difficulty and higher costs. 3) Key actors consolidated industrial alliances by negotiating interests, mediating conflicts, mobilizing intermediary organizations, and reinforcing their discursive power, thereby strengthening inter-actor linkages. This study clarifies the processes of multi-actor participation in industrial transformation within environmentally sensitive rural areas, as well as the mechanisms of power dynamics and discursive construction among stakeholders. Furthermore, through a diachronic study, this paper elucidates the agency of non-human actors in rural industries and the generative process of rural industrial subjects. It provides practical insights for achieving sustainable industrial transformation in similar regions.

Human-Economic Geography and regional/spatial planning serve as mutual ‘theory-practice’ supports. Particularly, the research in Human-Economic Geography concerning functional zoning, urban spatial structures, resource allocation, and locational theories provides a scientific basis and technical support for the development of regional/spatial plans. For instance, functional zoning research underpins the spatial division of labor and functional orientation; the theory of spatial structure provides the framework methodology for determining urban and regional economic patterns; and the location theory of element allocation serves as a critical basis for productive-force layout. Currently, the external environment is undergoing profound and complex changes. The primary conflict in regional/spatial planning has shifted from ‘development-protection’ to the mismatch between the demand for high-quality development and spatial supply. Under the global context of ‘regionalization’ and China’s population contraction, the innovative development of new regional/spatial planning requires addressing new demands from including building the new development paradigm, implementing new development philosophy, developing new quality productive forces, promoting high-quality development, and constructing new spatial governance model. This necessitates an adaptive transformation in the foundational logic, geographic layout schemes, and technical methods of regional/spatial planning research and formulation. It also raises new requirements for research in Human-Economic Geography regarding the human-land relationship across different scales and types of spaces, the flow and allocation of multiple elements across all fields, the laws of locational selection, and the collaborative spatial governance between government and market. In light of this, this paper proposes new topics for Human-Economic Geography in the coming period, particularly focusing on the evolution of China’s Economic Geography under the new development paradigm, the locational characteristics and layout principles suited to new quality productivity, the locational layout and synergistic linkage of new urban infrastructure, and the sustainable development of priority conservation areas under the requirement of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Furthermore, promoting integrated innovation between Human-Economic Geography and regional/spatial planning should clarify the differences in transition contexts and practical demands between Chinese and Western research. Future studies should be grounded in the phase-specific conditions of Chinese-style modernization, actively advancing summaries of Chinese-specific theoretical/methodological innovations, to serve and support national major strategies and regional socioeconomic development.

Scenic-town symbiotic space refers to a composite spatial system that emerges from the spatial interaction of economic, social, and cultural elements between scenic spot and town. Additionally, it functions as the geographic spatial carrier that accommodates scenic-town symbiotic relationships. This paper introduces the symbiosis theory to construct the theoretical framework and index system of scenic-town symbiotic space. Theoretical analysis reveals that the scenic-town symbiotic space can be categorized into four types: superimposed, inclusive, overlapping, and separated. Economical, social and cultural symbiosis serve as the dynamic driving forces that propel the operational dynamics of scenic-town symbiotic space. From the perspective of symbiotic relationships, the spatial patterns of scenic-town symbiosis are classified into three fundamental types, namely commensalism, asymmetric mutualism, and symmetric mutualism. Furthermore, these patterns manifest four distinct evolutionary paths: positive, cyclical, stable, and reverse evolution. Then taking Huangshan Mountain scenic spot and its gateway towns as examples, the evolution characteristics and patterns of symbiotic space in scenic spot and towns are discussed, through the application of gravity model, kernel density estimation and Lotka-Volterra symbiosis model. The empirical results indicate that: 1) The development of this space exhibits significant systemic imbalance and co-evolution. During the study period, the development index of the scenic spot experienced short-term fluctuations but long-term stability. The development indices of the gateway towns increased markedly, albeit with substantial internal disparities, while the capacity of the symbiotic environment continued to improve. 2) The symbiotic correlation intensity between Huangshan Mountain scenic spot and gateway towns shows distinct gradient differences. Specifically, the correlation with Tangkou Town was the strongest and most stable, followed by Jiaocun Town, Tanjiaqiao Town, and Gengcheng Town. The symbiotic space between the scenic spot and these towns is characterized by a multi-nucleated, overlapping, and circular spatial structure. 3) In the process of dynamic adjustment of the symbiotic relationship between scenic spot and town, Huangshan Mountain scenic spot and Tangkou Town show a reverse evolution development model of symmetrical mutualism-partialism symbiosis; with Tanjiaqiao Town, it follows a stable evolution model of partial symbiosis; and with Gengcheng Town and Jiaocun Town, it demonstrates a positive evolution model of asymmetric mutualism-partialism symbiosis. This theoretical and empirical investigation holds significant implications for fostering harmonious coexistence between scenic spot and town, optimizing regional tourism spatial layouts, and promoting sustainable development.

Urban parks, as semi-permanent natural entities within urban spaces, are crucial to urbanizationa, acting as vital mediators in the dense fabric of modern cities. Past research mostly addresses history, accessibility, sustainability, ecosystem services, and health. Yet such work tends to remain park-centered, overlooking broader human-nature connections and often treating parks as isolated islands rather than integral parts of the socio-spatial fabric. This paper uses a dialectical perspective on humans and nature, underlining time and space to propose that urban parks serve both as tangible sites and as a geographical method for examining ties among human, nature, and society. To deconstruct these complexities, we analyze 3 theoretical views: anthropocentrism, naive harmony between human and nature, and the more-than-human perspective. Anthropocentrism sees parks mainly for human benefit, while naive harmony presumes seamless nature-urban integration. In contrast,more-than-human frameworks highlight nonhuman agency and socioecological processes that shape and are shaped by parks, revealing hidden tensions within communities and between humans and nature. Further, the paper endorses using urban parks as lens, echoing calls for relational thinking in Human Geography. Rooted in the Chinese context, this lens unveils social transformation, spatial governance, and everyday life, revealing shifting cultural practices and power structures that inform urban change. Parks thus become tangible arenas for studying social and ecological interplay. Finally, this approach reengages Marx’s dialectical stance on human-nature relations while resonating with China’s contemporary vision of ecological civilization. It underscores integrating historical materialism with socioecological imperatives, emphasizing environmental stewardship alongside social justice. By recasting urban parks as a lens, this research enriches urban nature studies and provides ways toward resilient, inclusive, and ecologically aligned urban futures. Ultimately, this reorientation fosters more holistic views of urban ecosystems, guiding integrative and equitable policy-making for long-term sustainability and inclusive development.

Investigating the cooling effects of blue-green spaces and their influencing factors is essential for optimizing urban spatial configuration and enhancing environmental resilience. Using Xi’an as a case study, this study integrates multisource data—remote sensing, evapotranspiration, and meteorological datasets—and applies the InVEST Urban Cooling Model to generate the Heat Mitigation Index (HMI) for assessing the cooling capacity of urban blue-green spaces. Landscape pattern analysis, the Geographical Detector, and boosted regression trees are further employed to reveal the mechanisms through which landscape patterns influence cooling effects. The results are as follows: 1) In summer, surface temperatures in Xi’an are dominated by moderate-temperature zones. Urban heat islands are concentrated in the central urban area and the western industrial park, with a relatively stable spatial pattern; cool islands are mainly distributed along river corridors and in suburban croplands, and appear as scattered patches within high-density built-up areas. 2) The spatial distribution of HMI is highly consistent across different cooling distances: high-value areas outside the Third Ring Road are mostly distributed along rivers or concentrated in contiguous croplands, while high-value areas inside the Third Ring Road correspond to urban parks containing water bodies; low-value areas are primarily located in high-density built-up and industrial zones, forming continuous surfaces, and appear as linear belts in surrounding rural settlements. 3) The cooling effect of blue-green spaces results from the synergistic action of multiple factors. Landscape diversity and patch fragmentation are the core driving factors, each interacting with patch size to enhance cooling capacity. All factors exhibit threshold behavior, and their influence on cooling may be either promotive or suppressive depending on the range of their values.

Trajectory data is widely used to calculate spatial characteristics of human activities and to mine patterns of human behavior. When the time sampling intervals of the original trajectory data vary, the temporal observation scale of the moving object's location changes, which can affect the calculated human activity characteristics and analysis results, a phenomenon known as the temporal aggregation effect. Taking mobile phone data as a representative example, trajectory data is not specifically collected for human dynamics research; the varying time sampling intervals of the data result in widespread temporal aggregation effects. However, there is currently a lack of analysis on the temporal aggregation effects and their underlying mechanisms for typical human activity characteristics. To address this, this study utilized 123 days of intensive sampling mobile phone data from volunteers and selected six typical human activity spatial characteristics from four dimensions for analysis. The results show that: 1) There exists a temporal aggregation effect in calculating typical human activity spatial characteristics based on trajectory data. As the time sampling interval increases, the values of the indicators are generally underestimated, although the extent of underestimation varies across different indicators; 2) Indicators dependent on short-duration activities (e.g., daily travel distance, daily travel frequency, and daily travel spatial structure) are significantly affected, while those focusing on long-duration activities (e.g., maximum daily activity range, number of daily activity anchor points) are less affected. Comprehensive indicators (e.g., activity location entropy) are moderately affected; 3) When the sampling interval exceeds 30 minutes, the variation of indicators, except for daily travel distance, shows good consistency among individuals. These findings enhance the understanding of human activity spatial characteristics based on trajectory data and help improve the scientific foundation of decision-support systems.

This article takes the newly established Yellow River Estuary National Park as a case, explores the supply and demand of carbon sequestration services in the Yellow River Estuary National Park from the perspective of carbon neutrality and its decarbonization effect on the surrounding areas, and simulates the extraterritorial effect of carbon sequestration services in the study area through the ecological radiation force model, and explores its horizontal ecological compensation value from the perspectives of the compensating party and the compensated party, so as to provide some reference for the compensation of carbon sinks in national parks.The results show that: 1) The Yellow River Estuary National Park is rich in carbon sink resources, with a total supply of carbon sequestration services exceeding the demand. In addition to offsetting its own carbon emissions, there is sufficient surplus space to absorb approximately 15.4054 million tons of carbon dioxide from surrounding areas. 2) In addition to the Yellow River Estuary National Park, carbon supply and demand conditions in other counties and districts in Dongying City vary significantly. Only the Hekou District has a surplus space of 4.2328 million tons of carbon dioxide after meeting its own carbon sequestration needs to offset the emissions from other counties and districts. The Kenli District, Lijin County, Dongying District, and Guangrao County all have insufficient carbon sequestration services, and are relying on supplies from other regions to offset their unsequestered carbon. 3) The Yellow River Estuary National Park can build a carbon sink compensation and carbon emission trading system based on the balance of supply and demand of carbon sequestration services and the extraterritorial effect of carbon sequestration services based on the ecological radiation force model simulation, and promote the economic value transformation of carbon sink resources. In order to better realize the ecological protection and regional coordinated development of national parks, it is also of practical significance to effectively utilize the carbon sink function of national parks and enrich their sustainable development path.

The advancement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of poverty eradication (SDG 1) and sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) are facing the serious challenge of the complexity of urban poverty spaces in the Global South. Through a series of studies, this team integrated bibliometric (1 394 publications from 1939—2023), satellite remote sensing, and field survey validation data, mapped a 120-m-resolution map of urban poverty spaces covering 1 075 cities in 108 countries/regions in the Global South, and conducted a systematic analysis of the cold and hot spot regions of the research. The results show that: 1) urban poverty in the Global South was significant and spatially heterogeneous, with 423×10⁶ urban residents (44.76% of the total urban population) living in environmentally poverty spaces covering an area of about 46 927 km² (39.43% of the total urban built-up area), with South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America being the three most severely affected regions. 2) Existing research on urban poverty in the Global South was unevenly distributed geographically. Only 67 cities have been identified as hot pot cities having populations exceeding one million (average population size of 5.602×10⁶), and they are highly concentrated in low-and middle-income countries/regions. There are a total of 1 008 cold spot cities (accounting for 93.77%), which have smaller population size (average population size of 0.564×10⁶) but bear 60.15% of the total poverty population, widely distributed across regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. 3) Urban poverty mapping and attention studies complement each other, uncovering regional differences in urban poverty and revealing the urgency and priority of poverty alleviation in different regions, thereby reducing costs and increasing efficiency in poverty alleviation in low-income countries/regions and small and medium-sized cities. By sharing poverty data, optimizing international aid, and promoting China’s poverty alleviation experience, it is possible to effectively advance the anti-poverty and sustainable development process in the Global South.

This article investigates the inherent tensions between technology and institutional frameworks in smart city development across the Global South, advocating for a departure from Western-centric paradigms to construct a theoretically robust, locally adaptive, and critically reflective analytical framework. The study identifies two defining characteristics of Southern smart city practices: “technological catch-up”, driven by the imperative to bridge digital divides, enhance urban competitiveness, and respond to rapid demographic change, and “post-colonial critique”, which exposes how historical legacies of colonialism continue to shape contemporary technological adoption and governance structures in subtle yet enduring ways. Theoretical innovation is framed around integrating concepts such as spatial justice—addressing unequal distribution of digital resources across urban spaces—and digital sovereignty—safeguarding Southern nations’ control over data, technological autonomy, and regulatory authority—to redefine the dialectical relationship between technology and society. The research highlights the symbiotic interplay between informal economies (e.g., self-organized community networks, grassroots digital initiatives) and digital technologies, which challenges technological determinism and reveals a resilient development logic rooted in local adaptability and everyday practices. These insights deconstruct the linear narrative of technological progress, proving that Southern countries can balance efficiency with equity while pursuing differentiated urban modernities. By prioritizing context-specific innovations and inclusive governance, the Global South is reshaping the global knowledge production landscape, shifting from a passive “technology testing ground” to an active contributor of alternative urban theories and normative agendas. The study concludes by emphasizing the transformative potential of such frameworks to democratize technology, redirect smart cities toward social equity, and empower Southern nations to reclaim agency in global technological discourse. Through China’s practice of scale-sensitive smart cities and tripartite governance models, the research exemplifies how Southern-led innovations can challenge neoliberal techno-utopianism, alter dominant policy imaginaries, and foster pluralistic urban futures that reflect diverse socio-spatial aspirations.

Based on a bibliometrics analysis on existing literatures and a comparison of urbanization models among Europe, North America, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, this study constructs a “driving mechanisms-process-consequences” framework for analyzing urbanization. The framework adopts a time-series perspective and integrates three driving mechanisms: the primary driver of resource allocation, the fundamental endogenous and exogenous drivers, and “push-pull” interactive dynamics. Furthermore, it assesses urbanization across 5 aspects that evolve through different stages: economic development coordination, population migration, social integration, urbanization scale, and spatial representation. The post-1949 urbanization in China can be divided into three distinct historical stages. First, during the planned economy period from 1949 to 1977, cities primarily served industrialization needs. This resulted in a coexistence of incomplete urbanization and “counter-urbanization”. A distinct urban structure emerged, characterized by the intermingling of work-unit compounds and traditional residential areas, with factories and industrial zones located in the suburbs. Second, from 1978 to 2011, an era influenced by neoliberal policies, the combination of governmental macro-regulation and market forces generated a “new dualistic structure” within cities. This was defined by the socioeconomic divide between migrant workers and local hukou holders, as well as the spatial divide between the cheap, convenient housing of villages-in-the-city and high-end residential gated communities. Third, since 2012, China’s new-type urbanization has been defined by a reinforced governmental guiding role focusing on high-quality development. Strategies such as smart city initiatives, equitable public service provision, and ecological conservation have been emphasized. The people-centered approach to high-quality urbanization has provided critical guidance for charting a more mature course of urban development in China. As a result, a multipolar spatial pattern led by metropolitan areas and supported by the coordinated development of small and medium-sized cities and towns has come into being. In a word, the Chinese urbanization since 1949 has been a state-led process, though market forces have progressively intensified. It has shifted from a predominantly “push-driven” centralized one to a “pull-oriented” decentralized one. This transition has engendered a “neo-dualistic urbanization” paradigm, characterized by the simultaneous coexistence of pseudo urbanization alongside synchronous urbanization, of spatial concentration and decentralization, and of significant development gains with entrenched socio-spatial challenges. These features are fundamentally shaped by the evolving interaction between “push-pull” forces and “endogenous versus exogenous” dynamics. This study provides a valuable Chinese exemplar for understanding and theorizing urbanization in the Global South.

Destination image constitutes a vital component of a region's overall competitive strength. Building on the model of narrative comprehension and engagement and persuasion theory, this study examines the impact of internal and external realism in intangible cultural heritage bearers' media narratives on destination image, as well as the mediating role of media character identification. External realism refers to the extent to which the story aligns with the real world (regardless of whether the story is fictional). Internal realism refers to the coherence within the story itself in terms of logic, character motivations, and the continuity of events. Media character identification includes three dimensions: the audience's emotional resonance with the media character, perspective-taking, and motivation internalisation. In addition, destination brand awareness is introduced as a moderating variable in the research model. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to validate the net effects of antecedent variables on destination image. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is employed to explore the configurational pathways leading to positive destination image evaluations. The results show that: 1) Internal realism has a significantly positive direct effect on destination image, whereas the direct effect of external realism on destination image is not significant; 2) Both internal and external realism positively influence destination image through the mediating effect of motivation internalisation, while the mediating effects of perspective-taking and emotional resonance are not significant; 3) Destination brand awareness moderates the relationship between internal realism and destination image; 4) Destination image is the outcome of multiple interacting factors, with four types of condition configurations having high explanatory power for the formation of a favourable destination image evaluation. This study proposes a “Narrative-Character-Destination Image” framework, offering implications for destination image construction.

Environmental regulation serves as a key policy tool for protecting tourism ecological security and achieving high-quality tourism development. On the basis of using entropy method to measure the intensity of environmental regulation and the level of tourism ecological security in China province from 2006 to 2021, this paper tests whether there is spatial autocorrelation between them with the help of spatial autocorrelation, and constructs a spatial Durbin model to explore the spatial spillover effect of environmental regulation on tourism ecological security. The empirical results demonstrate three key findings: 1) During the study period, the intensity of environmental regulation and the level of tourism ecological security grew strongly, and both showed a spatial pattern of strong in the east, medium in the middle, and weak in the west and northeast, and the characteristics of spatio-temporal heterogeneity were prominent. 2) The global spatial autocorrelation of environmental regulation intensity and tourism ecological security level is significant, and the local spatial autocorrelation results show that the environmental regulation intensity and tourism ecological security level are mainly“H-H” and “L-L” clustering type. 3) Environmental regulations contribute to local tourism ecological security improvement through dual channels: facilitating technological innovation progress and promoting industrial structure optimization. Furthermore, Environmental regulations generate positive spatial spillovers to neighboring regions via two transmission pathways: industrial gradient transfer effects, environmental policy demonstration effects. Notably, the analysis confirms that these spatial spillover effects substantially outweigh the direct local effects. These research outcomes provide valuable policy implications for formulating precisely targeted environmental regulation strategies to enhance ecological security protection while fostering sustainable, high-quality tourism development.

Rural tourism serves as a vital instrument for China's rural revitalization, playing a significant role in diversifying rural economies, promoting urban-rural integration, and achieving sustainable development. Based on the ‘institutional-cultural' coupling perspective and utilizing the CiteSpace bibliometric tool, this study systematically reviewed the literatures on rural tourism development in China from the CNKI and Web of Science (WoS) core databases (2000—2024). It comparatively analyzed the differences and commonalities in research stages, hot topic, and methodologies between domestic (Chinese) and international (English) contexts. The findings reveal that: 1) Research in both Chinese and English contexts shows rising popularity, yet with distinct stage characteristics. Domestic studies are policy-driven, forming a practice-oriented framework around rural revitalization, cultural-tourism integration, and common prosperity; international studies focus more on micro-level issues like sustainability, community empowerment, and rural gentrification, reflecting critical perspectives. 2) The dynamic interplay between institutions and culture constitutes the core logic of rural tourism development. Domestic research emphasizes the enabling role of policy rigidity in cultural capitalization, while international research examines the contest between cultural authenticity and institutional power under globalization. 3) There are significant methodological divergences: Domestic studies prioritize policy validation and quantitative analysis centered on industrial development, whereas international studies predominantly employ qualitative deconstruction, centering on communities and individuals. Key implications suggest that future research should deepen exploration in three critical dimensions: theoretical integration and framework innovation, methodological innovation, and thematic refinement and expansion. Particularly, there is a need for cross-disciplinary approaches that bridge the gap between policy implementation and community-based sustainable development models. Additionally, longitudinal studies tracking the socio-economic impacts of rural tourism could provide valuable insights for both academic and practical purposes.

Based on questionnaire surveys and structured interviews conducted in these communities, this study analyzes the formation mechanism of the intention-behavior gap in rural tourism participation among resettled households, employing the Logit-ISM model. The results reveal a pronounced divergence between willingness and behavior, with up to 67% of households exhibiting such a gap. Factors influencing the consistency include government policy promotion, development demands for rural tourism, mutual trust and support among households, and household labor capacity. 2 primary pathways underlie the intention-behavior gap: the direct cause stems from individual households' cost-benefit assessments based on economic rationality; the indirect cause involves insufficient support from social network resources constructed at both individual and community levels; and the root cause lies in the inadequate interaction and multidimensional support among individuals, communities, and the government. The weighing of economic rationality aimed at benefit maximization, combined with the overarching logic of social network embedding, provides a systematic explanation for the formation of this intention-behavior divide. Based on the above conclusions, the following suggestions are put forward respectively for resettled rural households, resettlement communities and grassroots governments: First, resettled rural households should strengthen their tourism service skills to make their own qualities match the local tourism development. At the same time, they should make good use of micro-financial loans and collective mutual aid funds to reduce economic risks. Second, the village committees of resettlement villages in resettlement communities should take the lead in establishing tourism cooperatives, foster trust and support relationships among resettled rural households, and strengthen the sense of community in resettlement communities. Third, local governments should attach importance to policy publicity, improve resettled rural households' awareness of the content and direction of local tourism development policies, establish and improve the supervision mechanism for the implementation of policies, effectively bridge the “last mile” in policy implementation, and help rural tourism policies take root in resettlement communities.

The TOD (transit-oriented-development) pattern is an important way to alleviate urban traffic congestion and improve intensive land use. It is also a key measure to promote the sustainable development of urban tourism and public transportation. Exploring the relationship between the TOD pattern and urban tourism helps to promote a positive interaction between public transportation construction and urban tourism development. Therefore, this study proposes an analysis framework of TOD urban tourism vitality (TOD-UTV) based on human scale, and verifies the impact of Nanjing's TOD pattern on urban tourism from two aspects of geographical environment and environmental experience. The results show that: 1) The distribution of TOD tourism vitality is high in the central urban area and low in the surrounding areas. 2) The change tendency rate also shows a pattern of improvement in the middle and a decrease around. 3) The dominant factor contributing to this result is the significant coupling effect of infrastructure construction such as land development, roads and transportation facilities around TOD in the core urban area and the service quality of commercial places such as tourism and entertainment. Therefore, enhancing the coupling effect of environmental factors around TOD is an effective strategy to promote a positive interaction between urban tourism and public transportation. This study provides a new framework for evaluating how the TOD pattern promotes urban tourism development, provides theoretical support for exploring the relationship between urban tourism and public transportation on a human scale, and provides insights for the positive interaction between TOD planning and urban tourism development.

The interaction and construction of urban relationship networks have always been the focus of attention for urban geographers. In the information age, the virtual space is the mapping and extension of the real space. The search and connection volume of online tourism information can be regarded as the hotspots of social development or represent the potential travel intentions of consumers. Through the analysis of the informal flow space network, certain reference value can be provided for the tourism industry development planning of various regions. Establishing cross-scale spatial linkages between individuals-regions from virtual space can complement traditional geospatial perceptions. In this paper, we obtain the frequency of tourism information co-occurrence in two cities and municipalities in Xinjiang in Baidu index, and use social network analysis to explore the spatial and temporal evolution of the spatial network structure of tourism information flow in Xinjiang. The results show that: 1) Urumqi City has certain advantages in terms of destination tourism information flow and relationship network, but it does not show the “siphon effect” in the traditional geographic network, but constructs a complex flow relationship network beyond the geographic boundary. This suggests that tourists' willingness to embark on multi-region travel, even travelling across longer geographical distances, is crucial for promoting the balanced development of Xinjiang's regional tourism. 2) In the relational network space, the core-edge network structure is not entirely horizontal, but is hierarchical, and the hierarchical categorization is not based on its own inherent resource strengths and weaknesses as a single measure, but rather depends on the number of connections between nodes. It can be seen that in the information flow space, establishing information links becomes one of the ways for edge nodes to enter the core subgroups. 3) The core-edge hierarchical structure shows a dynamic change process, which challenges the idea of “the strongest is stronger than the strongest”, and by connecting to the core nodes, the nodes that were originally regarded as peripheral nodes can also be promoted to the core nodes, such as Hotan and Kashgar. The dynamic nature of real-time “reshuffling” and replacement of the positions of each node in the network reflects the importance of observing the development status of cities from informal networks, and can provide new insights for establishing interactive development relationships among cities. This paper not only verifies the innovative idea that networks are hierarchical, but also reveals the dynamic process of hierarchical change through spatial and temporal evolution characteristics, which provides new insights into the establishment of interactive development relationships between cities and provides new practical insights for marginal tourist destinations to become core tourist areas.

Rural spatial governance constitutes a critical component of China's governance framework, serving to regulate the allocation of spatial resources in rural areas, optimizes the spatial development patterns of the countryside, and facilitates integrated urban-rural development. The development of rural industries is the core of the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and also the key to evaluating the effectiveness of rural spatial governance. However, the development of rural industries in China still faces the crux of insufficient endogenous development momentum and weak endogenous development capacity. Therefore, taking the neo-endogenous development theory as a starting point and using qualitative research and spatial data analysis methods, this paper aims to systematically investigate the process and mechanism of rural industrial spatial governance through a case study of Jianhe Village in Jianhu County, Yancheng City. The key findings are as follows: 1) The industrial spatial governance of Jianhe Village has undergone a transition from bottom-up endogenous governance to top-down exogenous governance, ultimately leading to the neo-endogenous governance characterized by “up-down linkage, internal and external symbiosis”. Rural industrial spatial governance practices at each stage exhibit distinct policy-oriented characteristics. 2) The industrial space of Jianhe Village has witnessed significant resource reorganization, adjustment, and optimization of production space functions. It has also experienced the scale expansion and agglomeration of industrial development, shrinkage in traditional agriculture spaces, as well as expansion in glass industry, e-commerce, and service industry spaces. This transformation has led to an increasingly complex space with characteristics such as production-life, production-ecology, and production-life-ecology interactions. 3) Rural industrial spatial governance constitutes a continuous and dynamic practice process involving multiple actors. The industrial spatial governance of Jianhe Village is a systematic process that effectively integrates and adjusts internal and external development forces under government leadership while placing rural society at its core for coordination with market/society. The resource base serves as a critical foundation, while multiple governance actors function as fundamental decision-makers. Among these, governments act as guiding forces, while markets and societal actors serve as intermediaries for interest coordination, and endogenous rural actors constitute the core element.