It is commonly perceived that China’s population aging is characterized by the phenomenon of “aging before affluence, aging before readiness”.This perception essentially suggests a misalignment between China’s economic growth and the development of its aging population and health services for the elderly. Nonetheless, this assertion is not well-substantiated or supported by concrete evidence. Such a fundamental interpretation of the national context could significantly shape the country’s strategic framework and policy trajectory, with profound implications for realizing the objectives of healthy aging and ensuring the stable progression of an aging society.Therefore, this article uses the data from the China statistical yearbook and the national survey on aging, and applies the coupled coordination degree model to systematically examine the coupled coordination of China’s economic development, population aging, and healthy aging services at the regional level, to identify and reveal the reality of the assertion that “aging before affluence, aging before readiness”. The results show that China’s economic development, population aging, and healthy aging services are barely coordinated between the two and between the three systems, but there is significant heterogeneity at different regional and inter-provincial levels. Overall, there is better coordination in the east and worse in the midwest and its northeast region. Moreover, Some provinces have excellent coordination among population aging, economic development, and healthy aging services, while others face the more serious problem of “aging before affluence, aging before readiness”, and their level of economic development and healthy aging services are unable to effectively carry the challenges of population aging. This indicates that China does not need to worry too much about the problem of “aging before affluence, aging before readiness”. However, regional and interprovincial differences in the coordination among the three systems still require attention, especially in the central and western regions and the northeastern part of the country.

This article categorizes the concept of economic upgrading from three dimensions: structure upgrading, function upgrading and efficiency upgrading. Based on districts and counties of Guangdong Province, China, this paper investigates the spatio-temporal evolution of economic upgrading and population change during 2000—2020, and uses the panel regression model to explore the effects of economic upgrading on population change. The results show that: 1) The directions of structure upgrading, function upgrading and efficient upgrading had transferred into tertiarization, diversification, and high-efficiency, respectively, and these directions presented significant heterogeneities in the spatio-temporal perspectives. 2) The scope and degree of population shrinkage in Guangdong Province increased after 2010, with more than two fifth districts and counties experienced population loss during the last decade. 3) Population growth and shrinkage further differentiated spatially, shown in two spatial patterns—“growth in the central region, shrinkage in peripheral regions” and “growth in districts, shrinkage in counties”. 4) The effects of economic upgrading on population change varied according to its dimensions; specifically, the tertiarization negatively impacted on population change, the diversification stimulated population growth, and the high-efficiency led to population shrinkage. 5) The effects of economic upgrading on population change also depended on districts and counties’ regional locations and administrative types; specifically, the effects of tertiarization and high-efficiency are significant in the Pearl River Delta region and the district-level towns, the effect of diversification is significant in the eastern and the northern regions as well as the county-level towns.

Based on the cognitive dilemma of physical space faced by the renewal of traditional village human settlements, this article constructed an analytical framework for the organic renewal of traditional village human settlements from the perspective of logical space and the goal orientation of realizing organic renewal. Taking Gaoyi Village, Huitong County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province as an example, this article explored the practical path of organic renewal based on logical space. The results show that: 1) As a medium for the transformation from entity space to logical space, schema language provides a method support for the renewal and cognitive reconstruction of logical space. The selection of typical schema, the extraction of spatial elements, the analysis of logical relationship, and the analysis of generation mechanism realize the schema expression of physical space while constructing the schema language system of traditional village human settlements; Analyzing context logic, combing grammar logic and connecting text system can make logical space readable and concrete, and realize the recognition of logical space. 2) Logical space is an important cognitive perspective of the renewal practice of human settlements in traditional villages, which can find a balance between the continuation of tradition and innovative development, and is common to the three layers of organic renewal. Organic renewal is the theoretical foothold of logical space renewal. Schema context and schema grammar guide logical space renewal and the concept of organic renewal are consistent. The renewal of traditional village human settlements based on the perspective of logical space is similar to the content of organic renewal, and it is an extension of the perspective of organic renewal theory. 3) Under the dual background of natural recession and destruction of tourism development, the stability of the logical space operation of Gaoyi Village has been impacted and gradually alienated. Based on the modifiability of logical space, this paper starts with the method of schematic language, continues the village pattern and weaves the spatial artistic conception in the residential environment system of Gaoyi Village; Transplant the texture of streets and alleys to repair the spatial order; Build a cultural field, inherit the regional context, and maintain the organic and integrity of the logical space with the implementation of the concept of organic renewal as the foothold, so as to achieve the purpose of updating the living environment. In order to provide decision-making basis and experience reference for the renewal of human settlements in traditional villages.

Agricultural and rural modernization constitutes a crucial part of Chinese modernization and represents the envisioned goal for the future rural development. It is a transformative process wherein productive elements such as urban science and technology, along with social concepts and governance methods, are transferred to rural regions, facilitating a comprehensive upgrade of rural areas from traditional to modern society. Additionally, the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements is a significant aspect of rural reconstruction. It is a superimposed process that combines the adaptive adjustments of rural settlements in response to alterations in rural development factors and the structural reconstructions for specific developmental objectives. There is a close relationship between agricultural and rural modernization and the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements, as the former offers the impetus and target framework for the latter. The spatial reconstruction of rural settlements can be achieved through adaptive remodeling to synchronize with the progression of rural modernization and via in-depth restructuring to expedite the attainment of rural modernization goals. Presently, Chinese rural settlements exhibit prominent characteristics of spatial restructuring. For instance, first, there is a multiplicity in goal orientations, encompassing food security, augmentation of farmers’ income, sustainable agricultural development, and high-quality rural development. Second, due to variances in rural regional patterns, resource environments, and development determinants, there is complexity in functional types and spatial organization. Third, different rural settlement levels have disparities in the key aspects they emphasize regarding policy formulation, spatial organization, and facility allocation during spatial reconstruction. The paper further elaborates that the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements in China confronts the following tasks: 1) relying on agricultural development models like large-scale agriculture, urban agriculture, and leisure agriculture, to accelerate the appropriate scale operation of agriculture and drive the modernization of rural industries; 2) considering the current situation of rural contraction and the future structural traits of rural settlements, to reconstruct the rural settlement pattern that aligns with the coordinated development of human-land-industry and steers rural modernization; 3) with the objective of narrowing the urban-rural development gap, to construct a novel urban-rural integrated development pattern, to formulate a multi-level governance model that transcends administrative boundaries, and to realize the modernization of rural governance; 4) leveraging the advantages of rural resources, industrial characteristics, and the trend of functional differentiation, to reshape novel rural functions and propel rural transformation. Finally, this paper proposes that the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements should focus on the following aspects: 1) theoretical framework of spatial reconstruction of rural settlements under the concept of urban-rural parity; 2) mechanism of spatial reconstruction of rural settlements under the influence of new quality productive forces; 3) types of settlement development and regional spatial organization guided by diversified and characteristic rural functions; 4) research methodologies of spatial reconstruction of rural settlements supported by disciplinary integration and technological convergence; 5) scale and spatial organization of settlement reconstruction within the target scenario of rural modernization. In doing so, it endeavors to attain the objective of bolstering a powerful agricultural nation and realizing Chinese modernization.

Optimizing land use objectives offers effective tools for judicious resource allocation. Simulating future land use and carbon stock changes is vital for formulating regional sustainability policies and enhancing terrestrial ecosystem carbon storage. This article analyzed the spatial and temporal differences in land use and carbon storage from 2000 to 2020, predicted the spatial and temporal differences in land use changes and carbon storage under four development patterns, namely, “natural development pattern (BAU), urban development pattern (RED), cultivated land protection pattern (CPS), and ecological protection pattern (EPS)” in 2030 by constructing the coupled land use model (PLUS-InVEST), and estimated the economic value of the carbon storage by combining the formula of compounded present value and compounded terminal value in Lanzhou City from 2000 to 2030. The results showed that land use changes were dominated by the decrease of grassland area and the increase of building land area in Lanzhou City from 2000 to 2020, with a loss of 61.77×10⁴ t of carbon storage during the 20-year period. With the exception of the EPS, in which the carbon storage increased by 5.09 ×10⁴ t, all other scenarios showed different degrees of carbon loss compared to the 2020, with the largest loss of carbon in RED at 56.46×10⁴ t. In this study, the economic value of carbon storage increased by 10.3×10⁸ yuan in Lanzhou City from 2000 to 2020 through the compound present value method, which is mainly attributed to the significant increase in carbon price on the time scale. Compared to the economic value of carbon storage in 2020, the EPS has the highest economic value of carbon storage at 34.58×10⁸ yuan, which is the optimal development model for the study area. This study has important practical significance for the low carbon development of land resources and scientific decision-making of ecosystem management in Lanzhou.

Planting industry in China is in a critical period of transitioning from a production-oriented to a quality-oriented presently. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyze the spatiotemporal differentiation and driving mechanisms of ecological efficiency in planting industry, such as achieving agricultural quality and efficiency improvement, promoting its economic ecological coordinated development, and enhancing people’s well-being. DEA-SBM model, carbon emission model, non-point pollution method, spatial analysis technology of GIS and geographical detector model were used in this study, and the conclusions were as follows: 1) From 2010 to 2020, 3 trends of increasing, decreasing, and stabilizing coexisted in the input, and an upward trend in the expected output, while increasing and decreasing trends in non-expected output. The administrative units with low levels of ecological efficiency for planting industry continuously transformed to higher levels, and the hierarchical structure was optimizing; 2) The ecological efficiency for planting industry was higher in the east and lower in the west, and the “upward” and “unchanged” regions alternated from east to west. The changes of ecological efficiency in the east-west and north-south were mild, there were multiple core areas and had a “center-periphery” feature; 3) The ecological efficiency for planting industry in the study area was influenced by multiple factors. Natural conditions are the foundation to affect its pattern and evolution, agricultural technologies are the driving forces, the impact of agricultural economic development has 2 sides, and the product market plays a decisive role; 4) In the future, the planting industry in the study area should focus on the issue of carbon emissions, improve the utilization efficiency of agricultural chemicals, strengthen environmental education and pay attention to the radiation and driving role of the central areas. This study has used indicators such as geographical indications of agricultural products and green foods that reflect the contemporary characteristics of the planting industry to improve the existing evaluation system. It helps to improve the research methods and techniques, provide scientific basis for optimizing agricultural policies, and assist in the strategies of rural revitalization and agricultural high-quality development.

Bike-sharing is a new urban infrastructure with low-carbon and environmentally friendly pratices, directly contributing to the sustainable development of cities. However, most existing studies overlook both the distributed agency of bike-sharing and the dynamic ralational networks and operational logics underpinning it. Agency, as emphasized in assemblage theory, is not exclusive to humans but extends to non-human entities. Therefore, this paper adopts the urban assemblage perspective as its methodological freamework to analyze how bike-sharing is embedded into the fabric of everyday urban life and to uncover the theoretical logic behind this phenomenon. Urban assemblage provides a lens to navigate the complexity of urban systems, characterized by entangled materiality, emotions, governance, and non-linear causality. This study incorpoates two axes of material/expressive and territorialization, and two core concepts, distributed agency and relations of exteriority, to reveal the “black box” of bike-sharing through qualitative research methods. First, it examines the temporarily stabilized, multidimensional relational network of “human-technology-bike-space”, explaining the daily practices of bike-sharing in urban public spaces through a dynamic and non-linear perspective. The findings highlight that bike-sharing emerges as a product of continuous negotiation between human and non-human elements. Second, the paper reflects on urban ontology, social-technological interaction and technology influence on subjectivity, aiming to inspire social and cultural geographers to generate geographical knowledge aligned with the global trends of urbanization and intelligence. Finally, through the interpretive framework of multiple power game and spatial evolution, the research broadens the scope of society-technology interactions, offering novel insights into the transformation and sustainable development of Chinese cities from a new perspective.

With the urban heat island effect increasingly exacerbated, understanding how urban wetlands regulate temperatures across different seasons is of significant importance. This study utilized Landsat-8/9 thermal infrared band data from 2015 to 2022 to retrieve the land surface temperature (LST) of wetlands within the built-up area of Harbin-a wetland city, using the split-window algorithm. By constructing buffer zones and calculating the Normalized Cooling Capability Index (NCCI) and the Normalized Cooling Efficiency Index (NCEI), we systematically investigated the thermal effects of wetlands under varying spatiotemporal conditions. The results show that during summer (June—August), wetlands exhibit the most pronounced cooling effect, with an average cooling of approximately 3.39℃ at the wetland boundary relative to the surrounding urban area, and a larger influence distance. In contrast, from November to the following February, wetlands demonstrate a heat-retention effect, most notable in December with an average temperature retention of 0.66℃ and a relatively smaller influence range. Moreover, the spatial configuration of wetlands significantly affects their temperature-regulating function: wetlands with larger areas, higher shape indices, and hydrological connectivity tend to have stronger cooling capability and efficiency, and can exert a cooling influence over broader areas. These findings contribute to the understanding of urban wetlands’ temperature-regulating effects in different seasons and support the development of ecological cities.

With the acceleration of urbanization, a large number of urban wetlands are disappearing and degrading, posing a threat to urban sustainability. Accurate and real-time spatial distribution information of wetlands is essential for sustainable urban wetland management and urban planning. In this study, the built-up area of Haikou City in Hainan Province, an international wetland city, was selected as the research area. Combined with Sentinel-1 radar and Sentinel-2 optical images, the object-oriented and random forest algorithm remote sensing classification method was adopted to finely classify and map urban wetlands. We compared the effectiveness of this method with other classification methods to explore its applicability in urban wetland classification. The results show that the classification accuracy is improved by 5.29% after adding the dual-polarized backscattering coefficients of Sentinel-1 images to the original set of feature vectors using the same classification method. We found taht the object-oriented classification method is more suitable for wetland classification than the pixel-oriented classification method. Furthermore, the random forest algorithm used in this study demonstrated higher accuracy in identifying land cover types compared to the CART decision tree algorithm. The overall accuracy of the interpreted results using the added backscattering coefficient and the object-oriented random forest method was 91.53%, with Kappa coefficient of 0.90, indicating a good classification performance. This study can provide reference for the rapid and accurate identification and mapping of small-scale urban wetlands, and offers a visual scientific basis for the protection and management of urban wetlands.

Urban wetland parks are essential infrastructures of Chengdu’s efforts to construct a blue-green park system and to facilitate the development of park city demonstration zone. They play a crucial role in alleviating urban heat and providing cooling services to the public during summer. This study initially utilized the GEE platform, Landsat data, and an empirical statistical single-window algorithm to evaluate the summer land surface temperature (LST) of 42 urban wetland parks in Chengdu. Subsequently, the study investigated the relationship between water body, vegetation landscapes within the parks, landscape indicators outside the parks, and the land surface temperature within the parks. Finally, a potential heat-avoidance index for urban wetland parks was constructed from 3 aspects: park accessibility, park capacity, and park thermal cooling effect, to assess potential ability of an urban wetland park in heat alleviation. The results indicate: 1) The average land surface temperature of urban wetland parks within the Chengdu No.3 Ring Road to the Chengdu Ring Expressway is the highest, at 33.45℃, while those outside the Chengdu No.2 Ring Expressway have the lowest average land surface temperature, at 30.81℃, showing a difference of 2.64℃. 2) External heat environments have a positive impact on the land surface temperature within the parks, while the proportion of water bodies and the density of vegetation negatively affect the land surface temperature within the parks. 3) The top 5 urban wetland parks with the highest potential heat avoidance index are the Qinglong Lake Wetland Park, the Dong’an Lake Park, the People’s Park, the Wangjianglou Park, and the Xinglong Lake Wetland Park, while the bottom 5 urban wetland parks with the lowest heat avoidance potential are the Guanghua Park, the Dayuan Central Park, the Chuangzhi Park, the Jiaozi Park, and the Xinchuanzhixin Park. The study suggests that water bodies in urban wetland parks should be dispersedly distributed, and vegetation should be more densely and concentratedly distributed to enhance the potential ability of an urban wetland park in heat alleviation.

As an important part of global climate systems, the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) and its variations are the focus of academic research. The associated precipitation is closely related to socio-economic development of East Asia, affecting on the production and life of billions of populations. It is thus important to investigate the variability of the EASM on various time-scales and to explore its underlying forcing mechanisms. However, monsoon precipitation over China exhibits large spatial differences, based on reconstructions from various types of paleoclimatic archives and proxies. An enhanced EASM is characterized by increased rainfall in northern China and by reduced rainfall in southern China, with this relationship occurring on different time scales during the Holocene. Moreover, the stability of the EASM during Holocene and the timing of the Holocene climatic optimum throughout its dominated regions remains controversial. These pending questions fundamentally limit our further understanding of the evolution of human-environment interactions and the prediction of long-term trends of regional and global climate in the context of global warming. The Linfen Basin is situated on the southeastern margin of the Chinese Loess Plateau, belonging to a transitional zone between semi-arid and semi-humid region and being sensitive to EASM variation. In this study, we chose Zhong Liang (ZL) loess section in the Linfen Basin as research object to reconstruct the variation of the EASM since the Last Deglaciation, by using paleomagnetic dating providing age control and utilizing magnetic susceptibility and elemental composition proxies reconstructing the variability of the EASM since the Last Deglaciation. The results show that a series of short-term climate fluctuation events have been recorded by magnetic susceptibility and elemental composition of ZL section since the Last Deglaciation, such as the Younger Dryas (YD), 10.2 ka B.P., 9.2 ka B.P. and 4.2 ka B.P. cooling event. However, the 8.2 ka B.P. cooling event was not evident in this region. These observations suggest the climate of Linfen Basin varies with global features of millennial-scale and high-frequency oscillation since the Last Deglaciation, meanwhile affected by regional climate changes. Generally, the EASM shows a continuous enhancement from 16.6 to 6.0 ka B.P., in which reaches a maximum during (7.6—6.0) ka B.P., and then a fluctuated declining trend after 6 ka B.P. Moreover, the EASM variation generally matches that of insolation during the middle Holocene, whilst lags that of insolation during the early Holocene, suggesting the evolution of the EASM was mainly controlled by the Northern Hemisphere summer insolation on orbital timescale, and meanwhile modulated by high-latitude Northern Hemisphere ice volume. Due to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) changes caused by the injection of global ice volume during the Last Deglaciation and early Holocene, variation and intensity of the EASM was suppressed to lag the response of Northern Hemisphere summer insolation during the early Holocene, and to cause the evident weakness of the EASM during YD and 9.2 ka B.P. period.

Based on precipitation samples from Jinhua region (March 2022 to February 2023), this study combines meteorological data and the GLEAM dataset, to quantify the intensity of sub-cloud evaporation, the proportion of recycled moisture using the three-end d-excess method during different periods. The local meteoric water line in the study area is δD = 8.47δ¹⁸O + 16.45, with both intercept and slope exceeding those of the global meteoric water line. The precipitation deuterium excess (d-excess) fluctuates between -3.76‰ and 31.02‰, showing significant seasonal differences. Specifically, the average d-excess values during the spring rainy period and plum rain period (March to June), the summer drought period (July to August), and the brief rain period (September to February of the following year) are 11.06‰, 7.32‰, and 18.76‰, respectively. The results indicate that the sub-cloud evaporation intensity is highest during the summer drought period, followed by the brief rain period, with the lowest intensity during the spring and plum rain periods. The proportion of recycled moisture shows a similar pattern, being 21.25% during the summer drought period, 14.02% during the brief rain period, and 6.25% during the spring and plum rain periods. Relative humidity is the primary factor influencing both sub-cloud evaporation intensity and recycled water vapor proportion during the spring and plum rain periods.

In the process of plant ecological construction in sandy areas, it is still necessary to conduct in-depth scientific research on what kind of herbaceous plants can achieve the best windbreak effect. This article uses a mobile wind tunnel to plant herbaceous plant communities (Astragalus laxmannii and Leymus chinensis “Zhongke No.1”) in the wild. The effects of two plant communities on sediment transport rate and wind speed profile were explored under four different vegetation cover levels (10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) to clarify the windbreak and sand fixation ability The wind tunnel field test results show that Astragalus laxmannii has significantly stronger windbreak and sand fixation efficiency than Leymus chinensis, manifested as a significantly lower sediment transport rate than Leymus chinensis under the same vegetation cover and wind speed conditions, but a significantly higher wind speed reduction rate and wind erosion inhibition efficiency than Leymus chinensis. The optimal windproof coverage of Astragalus laxmannii is 30%, which can suppress about 90% of the sediment transport within 20 cm on the surface. When the vegetation coverage of Leymus chinensis is 32%, it can suppress 75% of the sediment transport within 20 cm on the surface. From the perspective of plant morphology and structure, plants with harder stems and multiple clustered stems have better windbreak and sand fixation effects.

To explore the variations of aeration zone soil specific yield under the condition of deep buried groundwater, The southern edge of Gurbantunggut Desert was taken as the research area by field in-situ observation.The complete specific yield under the condition of zero surface flux, the average releasing specific yield under the condition of evapotranspiration and the average charging specific yield under the condition of lateral leakage recharge were determined, and the effects of groundwater depth, infiltration and evapotranspiration on specific yield were discussed. Results showed that: 1) It is feasible to determine the soil specific yield under the condition of deep buried groundwater by the zone of aeration section water content method. 2) Under the condition of zero surface flux, the complete specific yield μ increases with the increase of groundwater depth H. When the groundwater depth exceeds the maximum rising height of capillary water, the change of complete specific yield is small and can be approximately regarded as a constant. 3) The average groundwater depth of interdune land in the southern edge of Gurbantunggut Desert is 8.80 m. The complete specific yield under the condition of zero surface flux is 0.36, the average releasing specific yield under the condition of deep buried groundwater evaporation is 0.13, and the average charging specific yield under the condition of lateral leakage recharge is 0.17. The results of this study can provide a new idea for the determination of soil specific yield under the condition of deep buried groundwater.