Underdeveloped regions are an important manifestation of unbalanced and insufficient development, as well as an outstanding shortcoming facing the advancement of Chinese-style modernization. Based on the scientific understanding of underdeveloped regions, this study identified the spatial distribution and regional types of underdeveloped counties in China in 2022, and proposed development paths for underdeveloped counties, with a view to providing references for establishing and improving regularized support mechanisms for underdeveloped regions. Essentially, underdeveloped regions stem from the shortcomings of human-earth system and the incoordination and inadaptability among its elements, which include not only lagging economic development, but also shortcomings such as insufficient public service and lack of infrastructure. Therefore, it is it is appropriate to adopt the “1+N” program for the spatial identification of underdeveloped regions, i.e., to diagnose different sectoral underdeveloped regions based on the identification of economically underdeveloped areas, and then to designate the types of underdeveloped regions. Spatially, county economic development level in 2022 showed obvious clustering characteristics, in which high-value counties were mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the periphery of provincial capitals and the energy-resource-rich areas in the Northwest. The estimation results of SDM and Geodetector show that the proportion of land used for transportation, years of schooling, urbanization rate, and the proportion of added-value of primary industry in GDP were the dominant factors affecting the regional differentiation of county economic development level. Therefore, sectoral underdeveloped counties include transportation-underdeveloped counties, education-underdeveloped counties, urbanization-underdeveloped counties and industrialization-underdeveloped counties. In accordance with the dominant constraints, their negative effects on county socio-economic development should be scientifically analyzed to propose countermeasures for different types of sectoral underdeveloped counties. In addition, the study identifies 695 economically underdeveloped counties, mainly in the former concentrated and contiguous areas with special difficulties. Based on the identified dominant constraints, these counties can be classified into five categories, i.e., economically underdeveloped counties constrained by industrialization and urbanization, industrialization-constrained economically underdeveloped co-unties, economically underdeveloped counties constrained by education and urbanization, multi-factor relatively constrained economically underdeveloped counties, and multi-factor strictly constrained economically underdeveloped counties. The regularized support strategies for different types of underdeveloped counties should be based on the combination of their dominant constraints, should be implemented in accordance with local conditions, classified guidance, and regional implementation.

The impact of geopolitics on patterns of global flows of critical resources is an important issue for the economic geography. Many countries with high dependence on crude oil import regard crude oil as their key strategic resource, and give priority guarantee in national security strategy. As the most serious geopolitical conflict in Europe since the Cold War, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has exerted a significant influence on the global crude oil transportation pattern. This paper quantitatively analyzes the spatio-temporal characteristics of global oil transport pattern before and after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Based on the global AIS ship track data from January to June 2019, 2020 and 2022, this paper presents a method of ship trajectory identification including data pre-processing, trajectory identification and flow calculation. By combining the time, speed, longitude and latitude coordinates and other constraints, the starting and ending points of the route can be determined, and the complete navigation trajectory can be identified. The crude oil transportation volume is calculated by the maximum weight ton of the ship, which includes the transportation volume, the transportation distance and the turnover volume. The results are: 1) Before and after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the global crude oil shipping flow decreased significantly, and the global crude oil turnover fell by 24% in the short term. This negative effect has a one-month lag, which is related to the time of a single crude oil shipment. 2) There is spatial heterogeneity in global crude oil shipping flow. The variation of shipping flow occurs only in a few specific regions, and the trend is different. On the demand side, Western Europe increased crude imports from North America and the Middle East, while India and East Asia increased their imports from the Mediterranean. On the supply side, the Middle East have increased their crude exports to western Europe while reducing their crude exports to East Asia; and the Mediterranean region, crude oil exports increased both to Europe and to Asia. 3) The spatial distribution of global crude oil production and consumption level is extremely unbalanced, forming 21 major global crude oil shipping routes, where Russia to Europe route traffic reduced, Russia to India route and the Middle East, the United States to Europe route traffic grew. The pattern of global oil transportation shows a trend of restructuring, showing a “Trans-Atlantic route” dominated by Western Europe and the United States, and a “Asian route” dominated by Russia. This pattern will have an impact on energy security, energy industry and related industries in countries with high dependence on oil imports. This paper helps to enrich the study of the relationship between geopolitics and global resource flow patterns and deepen the theoretical understanding of the impact of geopolitics on global resource flow patterns.

Using the Mann-Kendall method, the growth rate of China’s urbanization since the reform and opening up was divided into 2 stages, 1978—1994 and 1995—2020, and the pattern of China’s provincial urbanization in different stages was analyzed. Using panel data, the dynamic mechanism of this pattern was discussed from the intra-regional and inter-regional levels. The results show that: 1) The spatial and temporal dynamic differences of China’s provincial urbanization are significant. In 1978, China’s regional urbanization pattern showed a pattern of high in the north and low in the south, and high in the east and low in the west. In 1994, the pattern of urbanization presented the urbanization rate of the provinces in the north and southeast coasts is relatively high, and southwestern provinces are relatively low. The urbanization level in 2020 has formed a pattern of gradual decline from east to west. 2) The estimation results of spatial Durbin model show that labor demand as a pulling force has a stronger effect on the urbanization rate between regions than within regions; The effect of the income gap between urban and rural areas on urbanization rate is firstly suppressed and then promoted, and the intensity of the effect between regions is always stronger than that within regions. The regional economic development disparities, acting as an inter-regional push factor, have a significant positive effect on urbanization only in the initial phase; the income gap between urban areas, serving as an inter-regional pull factor, overall shows an effect that initially suppresses and then promotes urbanization rates, with the impact shifting from being stronger inter-regionally to being stronger intra-regionally. 3) The results of Geographically Weighted Regression model show that, in economically developed regions, labor demand and urban-rural income gap, as regional push and pull forces, have a positive driving effect on the urbanization of each province. The positive effect of regional economic development differences and inter-regional urban income gaps on urbanization has obvious fluctuations in space. But the change has become stronger over time, indicating that the development gaps between regions and between urban and rural areas are constantly promoting the urbanization development of various provinces as a push and pull force between regions.

This study aims to examine the similarities and differences between Chinese and international geographical research by comparing and analyzing research hotspots from the 35th International Geographical Congress (35th IGC) and the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG-AM), to provide insights for Chinese geographical research. We employed a Python-based web scraping program to extract and analyze report data from various countries’ conference websites. Our study reveals commonalities in Chinese and international geographical research concerning global issues such as tourism, leisure and global change, and future Earth. However, some disparities exist in research foci and methodologies. At the 35th IGC, international research emphasized socio-cultural dimensions, including gender and geography, and cultural approach, while Chinese scholars focused more on areas closely aligned with national development strategies, such as land use and agricultural geography. Moreover, the 2024 AAG-AM data indicate that international research excels in environmental and Earth Sciences, GeoAI, and deep learning, whereas Chinese research concentrates on geospatial solutions for major challenges and human dynamics. This study suggests that Chinese geographical research could draw upon international experiences, adopt interdisciplinary research methods, utilize advanced technological tools, focus on social justice and cultural diversity, strengthen research in political geography and area studies, and enhance international cooperation. These efforts will elevate the international standing of Chinese geographical research and amplify its role in the global geographical arena.

Wetlands play an important role in flood regulation, water purification, and biodiversity maintenance, etc., which are closely related to human well-being and survival. Wetland Science is an important part of geographical science and is of great significance in supporting scientific development and serving the construction of national ecological civilization. The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) is the main channel to fund basic research of Wetland Science, and the funding status can reflect the research hotspots and development directions in Wetland Science. In this study, 519 projects related to Wetland Science funded by the discipline of Geographic Sciences (application code D01) in 1986—2023 were covered by titles or keywords including “wetland”“marsh”“peatland”“mangrove” or “mudflat”. The systematic analysis was conducted from the perspectives of application code, research area, research content and keywords. The results show that the funded projects in Wetland Science have experienced two “decade” of rapid and steady growth from 2002 to 2012 and from 2013 to 2023; these projects are mainly concentrated in landscape geography and integrated physical geography (D0105), remote sensing science (D0113) and biogeography and soil geography (D0103). In terms of research objects, inland marsh wetlands and coastal wetlands are the main focus; in terms of research contents, “remote sensing monitoring”“process”“climate change”“vegetation” and “function” appeared more frequently. The keyword network relationship shows that “remote sensing and spectrum”“remote sensing and vegetation” and “landscape and pattern” co-occur more frequently, which characterizes the geographical features of the current development of wetland science and the changing research methods. Currently, the Geographical Sciences discipline of NSFC is further optimizing the branch discipline layout and keywords, strengthening the cross-field and cross-disciplinary interactions and fusions, guiding focus on the fundamental theories and frontier hotspots of Wetland Science, and promoting the high-quality development of wetland science research in China.

Methane emissions from floodplain wetlands are an essential component of the global methane budget. A comprehensive understanding of these emissions is crucial for accurately quantifying regional methane budgets. This study reviews the primary processes involved in methane production, oxidation, and transport within floodplain wetlands. It systematically examines the impacts of hydrological dynamics, vegetation, soil characteristics, temperature, human activities, and climate change on methane emissions from these ecosystems. Additionally, the study summarizes the wetland methane process models utilized in global carbon projects and traces their historical development. This study identifies the challenges associated with simulating methane emissions from floodplain wetlands, including dynamic hydrological processes, variations in soil properties, and the development of vegetation. Furthermore, the study suggests that future research should enhance the understanding of the mechanisms by which complex hydrological processes influence methane emissions in floodplain wetlands. This involves integrating periodic hydrological fluctuations, alternating wet and dry soil conditions, and dynamic changes in vegetation into wetland methane process models. Furthermore, it is necessary to strengthen the establishment of methane flux observation stations in floodplain wetlands to provide long-term, continuous data support for calibrating methane process model parameters, thereby improving the accuracy of regional methane emission assessments. By integrating these factors, methane process models for floodplain wetlands can be enhanced, providing robust scientific support for achieving global carbon neutrality goals.

Based on discussing the significant spatial heterogeneity of the three components of productive forces, this paper systematically analyzes the changes of regional attributes and spatial structure brought about by the emergence of new quality productive forces. Then, the basic law of the distribution of new quality productive forces is discussed from three aspects, such as new factors of new quality productive forces, territorial production complexes and national network systems. Subsequently, the evolution trends of new quality productive forces distribution is revealed. It is concluded that the mechanism of new transformation of production relations lies in the realization of the value of knowledge and the rationalization of benefit sharing, the changes and adaptive management of labor relations caused by digital intelligence, and the tradeoff between regional disequilibrium and spatial fairness caused by scientific and technological innovation ability. Repositioning the regional major functions, re-examining the regional comparative advantages and development paths, and re-constructing the interaction between different major functional zones are the main aspects of constructing the institutional system adapting to the new production relations based on the strategy of the major functional zones. The key points of supporting reforms to develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions are as follows: Focusing on improving scientific and technological innovation capacity, forming a mechanism and institution for the integration of science, technology, education and talents with local characteristics; focusing on scientific and technological innovation-driven development, forming a mechanism and institution for the spatial coupling and coordinated development of innovation chain and industrial chain; focusing on the systematic planning of a coordinated national response, forming a mechanism and institution for the production network and system for the formation of new quality productive forces by giving full play to the comparative advantages of different regions; focusing on open economic patterns, forming a mechanism and institution for new quality productive forces with competitive security and resilience.