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.

At present, resilience research is a hot area of sustainability science research, and livelihood resilience analysis is an effective analytical tool to solve the impact of regional or individual household livelihoods. Based on the systematic review of the research literature on livelihood resilience at home and abroad, this study combs the concept connotation, analysis framework and evaluation method of livelihood resilience. The study found that: 1) Livelihood resilience is a key support for people and their initiative to resist disturbances and achieve recovery and sustainable development when dealing with the impact of livelihood systems. Its conceptual connotation can be divided based on 4 perspectives: process, capability, strategy and transformation. 2) The theme of livelihood resilience research presents a ‘progressive’ development, from external climate change to the awareness of natural disaster response, and then to human disturbance factors and emphasizing human subjective initiative; the scale shows a global and multi-scale trend, and the construction of the index system of research content tends to be more subjective and objective. However, there are still limitations such as conceptual generalization, ignoring the transformation of livelihood strategies and long-term changes in livelihoods. 3) According to the dominant interference factors and the evolution of research topics, the analytical framework and evaluation models in the field of livelihood resilience research can be divided into 3 types: ‘climate change type’ ‘natural disaster type’ and ‘human disturbance type’. Climate change type livelihood resilience connects climate adaptation and livelihood security, and serves long-term climate adaptation policies; quantitative assessment of emergency response and short-term recovery capability of natural disaster-type focus on sudden disasters; the human disturbance type focuses on the interaction between human initiative and social structure, and the subdivision dimensions such as resource utilization and knowledge learning are more suitable for the social and economic scene. In the future, we should gradually build a systematic category-based livelihood resilience analysis framework, strengthen the comparative analysis of research objects and multi-case application research, pay attention to the multi-scale trade-off and spatio-temporal dynamics of livelihood resilience assessment, and explore the long-term dynamic characteristics of livelihood and livelihood strategies.

The rapid development of media technology has led to the continuous coupling of cyberspace and real life, creating new places for subject interaction outside of physical space, and bringing subversive changes to the connotation of humans and places, as well as to the relationship between them. The study chooses Luoyang, Henan Province, a famous Internet celebrity city in China, as a case study, and uses qualitative methods, such as in-depth interviews and content analysis, to understand the process of perception and interaction between humans and places in digital arenas, such as short videos, with the help of the concept of ‘encounter’. The study points out that: 1) Network technology has reshaped the essence and connotation of the existence of humans and places in the digital space. Digital places have become a mixed concept composed of real space and individual consciousness, and human subjects have been endowed with new digital attributes and rely on digital identity to exist; 2) In the process of digital encounter, humans and places use online images or identities to achieve virtual presence. The dissemination of places involves the interaction between multiple subjects, as well as between subjects and various local cultural symbols. The essence of human-place encounter is the interaction of meaning between people, and between humans and symbols; 3) The encounter of digitalization brings about a transformation in the emotional connotation of a place. Although the place is still the foothold of emotions, its core reflects more on the introspection and reflection of emotional subjects on themselves, and further promotes individuals to actively meet the place in online and offline spaces. The exploration of new human environment relationships and interactive methods in the era of media has profound significance in shaping individuals in the network, developing local tourism, and constructing material space. It is a necessary work in digital development and provides theoretical support for the marketing and image construction of cities and places.

Talent is the primary resource for development, and its spatial mobility and redistribution are essential for enhancing regional human capital, upgrading knowledge structures, and fostering innovation capacity, thereby empowering new quality productive forces and reshaping the geography of regional competition. As an emerging yet rapidly expanding branch of Population Geography, Talent Geography in China originated in the 1980s and has accelerated since 2010 under the combined forces of demographic transition, technological change, urban expansion, and policy-driven regional competition. This study conducts a systematic and integrative review of its disciplinary evolution, key concepts, analytical traditions, and interdisciplinary bases, while synthesizing research progress across multiple categories of talent, including highly educated talent, skilled labor, university graduates, and special-type talent such as scientific researchers and creative workers. It further distills the core mechanisms shaping talent distribution and mobility from 4 dimensions: economic push-pull dynamics associated with wage differentials and job opportunities; place-based amenities reflecting environmental quality, public services, and urban livability; institutional and policy interventions embodying China’s government-led talent strategy; and spatial effects manifested in spillovers, non-stationarity, and intercity interactions collectively structure China’s complex talent landscape. Looking ahead, this paper identifies 3 strategic directions for advancing talent geography research: building a theoretical framework to capture the diverse spatial behaviors and development roles of different talent groups; establishing the analytical foundations of talent dividend geography to evaluate how talent-driven gains vary across regions; and deepening the study of global “talent ocean currents” to understand China’s evolving position within worldwide talent circulation networks. By integrating historical review, mechanism-based analysis, and forward-looking perspectives, this study enriches the conceptual, methodological, and empirical foundations of talent geography and provides valuable insights for implementing China’s strategy of strengthening the nation through talent and promoting Chinese-style modernization through high-quality population development.

This paper delves into the theoretical frameworks and practical strategies for coordinated county-town-village development, unveiling its scientific essence and mechanisms. It establishes a conceptual framework for achieving coordinated development and propose implementation pathways toward urban-rural integration. The main conclusions include 3 aspects. First, as a novel model for urban-rural integration, county-town-village coordination emphasizes the interconnectedness of support systems, spatial organization, industrial systems, and comprehensive governance across administrative levels. This fosters integration in infrastructure, public services, spatial planning, industrial networks and spatial governance. This model builds upon traditional township-village coordination by emphasizing the holistic nature and networked linkages across the three levels of county, town and village. Second, the coordinated development of county-town-village systems is reinforced through coordinated infrastructure development and integrated public services. This approach strengthens alignment in development objectives and functional positioning within spatial planning frameworks. Based on the diverse products of county, town and village, it forms a county-level product space with inherent upgrading potential. Moreover, it achieves comprehensive governance across social, economic and ecological dimensions through multi-level organizational system of county, town and village. Third, the practical strategy for coordinated county-town-village development focuses on three foundational pillars of county-level economic development, urban-rural element flow and enhanced development entities. It is imperative to implement differentiated development pathways tailored to the economic characteristics and resource advantages of county, town and village. This involves constructing institutional mechanisms to enable bidirectional flows of urban-rural elements including labor, capital, technology, land and markets. Concurrently, it entails broadening the intra-rural, social and market entities involved in urban and rural development and strengthening the linkage channels for production, service and operation. This paper will contribute to tackling development imbalance and insufficiency, unleashing the immense potential of counties. It will also provide theoretical underpinnings and practical pathways for regional high-quality development and Chinese-style rural modernization.

Land cover and its changes are an important part of global change research, and play an irreplaceable role in climate change research, biodiversity conservation, the global carbon and water cycles monitoring, as well as other major needs. As an essential descriptor of the Earth’s surface, land cover provides a fundamental basis for understanding human-environment interactions and assessing ecosystem functions. Over the past few decades, with the continuous improvement of satellite remote sensing technology, the rapid growth of data storage capacity, and the development of high-performance computing platforms, global land cover mapping and change monitoring have made remarkable progress. The spatial resolution of available products has increased from the early 1 km scale to today’s 10-30 m range, enabling a more detailed characterization of heterogeneous landscapes. Meanwhile, the temporal frequency has evolved from single-period mapping toward multi-year and annual land-cover change monitoring, greatly enhancing our ability to capture dynamic land processes and long-term environmental transitions. In this study, we collected 21 publicly released global land cover products at home and abroad, and then comprehensively summarize their characteristics from three aspects: land cover classification system, methodology and dataset/products. First, we systematically summarized the land-cover classification system of current global land cover products into three groups, and further clarified their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Then, we sorted out the development history of the global land-cover algorithms from single land-cover mapping and time series land cover change monitoring, and further evaluated the different development stages and overall development trends of the global land cover research. Finally, the main problems existing in the current global land cover research are described, and some thoughts on the future development of this direction are put forward, particularly regarding the need for harmonized standards, higher spatiotemporal consistency, and better validation frameworks.

Amid the accelerating forces of globalization and modernity, worldwide discourses and practices of heritage have given rise to complex political, social, cultural, and spatial phenomena at community, national (region), and global scales. As the most recent paradigm in global heritage studies, critical heritage studies, a profound reflection on the phenomenon and nature of heritage, re-examines the subjectivity of heritage and investigates the political-economic and socio-cultural mechanisms that shape heritage construction from multiple perspectives. Drawing on its strong tradition of exploring human-environment relationships, human geography has contributed significantly to the theoretical advancement of critical heritage studies—particularly through an emphasis on the interactive processes of heritage-making and the spatiotemporal heterogeneity among heritage, place, and subjectivities. This paper offers a systematic review of the interwoven trajectories of critical heritage studies and heritage research in human geography, demonstrating that geography of heritage has developed two emerging research paradigms: constructivist and relational approaches. It further synthesizes key academic debates on four core themes: heritage identity and governance, heritage tourism and heritage authenticity, everyday life and living heritage, and the hybridity of natural and cultural heritage. The study argues that the parallel evolution of critical heritage studies and heritage geography aligns closely with geography’s “cultural turn” and “relational turn”, thereby fostering the formation of a more expansive interdisciplinary framework for heritage research. The interweaving of critical heritage trends and heritage geography research has had a profound impact on essential heritage issues and revealed that an increasing number of heritage practices demonstrate various possibilities. Heritage protection is no longer just about avoiding potential “risks”, but rather an active commitment to shaping a diverse and inclusive “future of heritage”. It should be noted that the differences in the humanistic environment, urban-rural development background and political and economic systems between China and the West have resulted in heritage geographical phenomena emerging in China that differ from those in the Western context. When applying critical heritage studies to examine the geography of heritage in China, the right of different cultures to coexist and the importance of local culture should be emphasised. Looking ahead, the geography of heritage in China should deepen its engagement with issues of cultural diversity, social equity, and sustainable development as shaped by heritage practices, thereby contributing a robust scientific basis for China’s people-centered heritage conservation in the new era.

The phenomenon of “internet celebrity city”, a product of the digital economy, illustrates how virtual information flow can transform into actual tourist traffic. This paper uses Harbin’s emergence as an “internet celebrity city” as a case study, applying time series analysis, Granger causality tests, and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) models to examine the mechanisms by which tourism information flow drives passenger flow. It also examines their interaction’s spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors. The key findings are: 1) Tourism information flow and passenger flow in the preparation, launch, outbreak and sustained four stages of attraction and interaction characteristics of symbiosis, attraction is reflected in the threshold effect and precursor effect, interaction through the feedback to strengthen the formation of a virtuous circle. 2) This interaction displays notable scale effects and spatial heterogeneity, with a significant bidirectional Granger causality observed nationwide, while complex spatial differentiation emerges at the regional level. 3) Consumer potential, information level, and transportation accessibility positively impact tourism passenger flow, while spatial distance negatively impacts passenger flow. This study enhances the theoretical framework of tourism flow dynamics by integrating spatiotemporal scales and spatial heterogeneity analysis. It proposes three strategies: developing dynamic information ecosystems for crisis management; implementing differentiated marketing strategies that leverage regional responsiveness, including cultural campaigns for remote markets; and fostering transportation-information synergy to enhance accessibility through coordinated high-speed rail promotions with social media trends. These findings offer insights for optimizing digital tourism governance and improving destination competitiveness in platform economies.

High-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure development has fundamentally reshaped urban economics and spatial organization of economic activities. The opening of new HSR lines not only enhances transportation convenience and locational advantages of cities along the route but also generates significant network effects at the regional level, thereby influencing the economic activity structure and land valuation patterns of HSR cities at different scales. While much of the existing literature has focused on the direct or local effects of HSR on individual cities, there has been relatively limited exploration of the broader network effects generated by HSR networks. This paper focuses on analyzing both the local and network effects of newly constructed HSR lines on cities, providing a comprehensive framework for understanding HSR’s multidimensional impacts. An empirical study examines the impact of the Zhongyuan Urban Agglomeration’s HSR network development on residential land prices at different scales. By combining the PSM-DID model with multilevel data analysis, the empirical findings reveal a dual mechanism through which new HSR lines influence land value. First, we identify a local effect, where cities directly connected by new HSR lines experience an average increase of 11.2% in residential land prices. This increase can be attributed to the improved accessibility, the enhanced locational appeal, and stronger development expectation among investors and local stakeholders. Second, we uncover a network effect: city, as a part of the broader HSR network, but not is necessarily on the newly opened line, also experiences a positive impact, with residential land prices increasing by approximately 2% on average. This finding highlights the importance of network connectivity and suggests that HSR infrastructure generates externalities to transcend the immediately affected localities. Furthermore, the magnitude of these network effects varies significantly across cities of different administrative levels. Prefecture-level cities benefit more substantially from the network effect compared to county-level cities. This heterogeneity shows the uneven spatial distribution of HSR-related benefits. Urban hierarchy determines how effectively cities can leverage their network position. This study demonstrates that the existence of both local effect and network effect of HSR and reveal the multidimensional and spatially heterogeneous nature of HSR effects. These results provide critical insights for regional planning and infrastructure investment. Policymakers should consider network-wide impacts in designing strategies to promote balanced urban development through transportation infrastructure expansion.

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.

In the era of mass tourism, tourism has become an important driving force for economic growth. As the quality of national cultural tourism demand improves, the rural cultural tourism industry is in urgent need of transformation and upgrading. From the perspective of “production-circulation-consumption”, the study explores the theoretical logic of digital technology enabling the high-quality development of cultural tourism in rural areas, and concludes that digital technology has a positive driving effect on the high-quality development of rural cultural tourism, especially in the reorganization of the allocation of cultural tourism resources, innovation of cultural tourism products, upgrading of the circulation system, and enhancement of the ability of consumer services, which has a significant role in promoting the development of cultural tourism. It has a significant role in promoting the development of rural culture and tourism. However, at present, the digital divide in rural areas is highlighted, the power of resource transformation is insufficient, the governance system of digital space is missing, and the internal power of value transformation is insufficient, which restricts digital technology from empowering the high-quality development of digital cultural tourism in rural areas. To this end, we should establish a standardized system, strengthen the supervision of the new production organization system, improve the modern circulation system, and optimize the “three new” relationship of consumption in the digital context. In this way, we can promote the high-quality development of rural cultural tourism empowered by digital technology.

In recent years, extreme summer precipitation events have occurred frequently in northeast China, posing a serious threat to the socio-economic development and the safety of people’s lives and property. The accuracy of precipitation data is crucial for disaster prevention, and mitigation, as well as scientific research. Using the daily precipitation data from the national benchmark meteorological station in northeast China (1998—2018) and the hourly precipitation data within Jilin Province, the applicability of CLDAS multi-source fusion precipitation data and CN05.1 grid precipitation data to summer precipitation in northeast China was comprehensively assessed in this study. The results indicate that both CLDAS-Pre and CN05.1 can reasonably reflect the spatial distribution of summer precipitation in northeast China to a certain extent. Compared with CN05.1, CLDAS-Pre has a better correlation with the observed precipitation (>0.8), with smaller mean relative error and root mean square error. Dry and wet deviations are found for summer precipitation over northeast China in CLDAS-Pre and CN05.1, respectively, with this phenomenon most pronounced in August. Both datasets have a higher reproduction of the number of days with light and moderate rainfall, and a lower estimation of the number of days with heavy rainfall. The peak accuracy of CLDAS-Pre hourly precipitation reproduction is roughly between midnight and early morning over the entire region. Overall, CLDAS multi-source fusion precipitation has better applicability in the northeast region. However, the CN05.1 dataset, with its longer sequence, retains significant advantages for applications such as model validation.

Grain production is a major issue related to the national economy and people’s livelihood. In recent years, under the background of global climate change, factors such as changes in meteorological conditions, agricultural disasters, large-scale occupation of cultivated land in the process of urbanization, rural hollowing, and agricultural technology changes have all had a significant impact on grain production. This article explores the spatial and temporal pattern of China’s grain production and its driving factors at multiple scales from the dual background of urbanization and climate change, in order to provide scientific support and policy enlightenment for food security under the background of climate change and rapid urbanization. The results show that: 1) Although China’s total grain output has fluctuated slightly from 2000 to 2022, it has shown an overall growth trend. The main function of regional grain production has become more prominent and significant time transitions have taken place. The provincial grain production pattern has experienced a spatial reconstruction from “single core-edge” to “dual core-edge”. 2) The impact of urbanization and climate change on grain production has scale difference, superposition and interaction effect. Urbanization shows a net positive effect on multiple scales, while climate factors are more significant only on the provincial scale. Under the superposition effect of the two, urbanization plays a leading role in grain production compared with climate factors. Under the interaction effect of the two, the violation of urbanization and climate factors restricts provincial grain production. 3) The impact of urbanization and climate change on grain production has significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity. In terms of time, the leading role of climate change mainly occurred in the first 11 years since the 21st century, while the leading role of urbanization mainly occurred in the second 11 years. In terms of space, urbanization only has no significant impact on grain production in the developed areas of urbanization, while climate factors have no significant impact on non-spatial continuous grain functional zoning.

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.

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.

The spatial integration and optimization of protected areas is the foundation for establishing a protected area system with national parks as the main body, and it is crucial for resolving various conflicts and historical issues in protected areas. Systematically reviewing the research progress on the spatial integration and optimization of protected areas in China, and conducting in-depth studies in line with the national conditions, is of vital importance for building the world’s largest national park system. This article takes the research literature on the spatial integration and optimization of protected areas published in China from 2004 to 2024 as the basis, and uses Citespace software to systematically analyze the research process and main content of the spatial integration and optimization of protected areas, and to look forward to future research priorities. The study finds that: 1) The overall research on the spatial integration and optimization of protected areas in China follows the direction of “problem status-spatial analysis-policy recommendations”, continuously deepening and expanding. 2) The main research focuses on the diagnosis of major problems, the depiction of spatial patterns, the identification of protection vacancies, the optimization of ecological space integrity, and the policies and measures for integration and optimization. 3) Based on the deficiencies of existing research, future research prospects are proposed from aspects such as the coordinated development and integration pathways of transboundary protected areas, the functional zoning of protected areas under the background of territorial spatial planning, the evaluation and dynamic monitoring of the integration and optimization effects of protected areas, the division of labor and cooperation between different types of protected areas, and the research on coordinated path of ecological protection and human well-being of protected areas.

Against the backdrop of climate change, energy transition, and high-quality development, new energy vehicles (NEVs) have become an increasingly vital component of strategic emerging industries. Specifying the spatiotemporal patterns of NEV enterprises within urban agglomerations and identifying the influencing factors are basic scientific issues for facilitating the development of NEV industrial development. This paper depicts the spatiotemporal patterns of NEV enterprises in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) during 2017—2021 and examines the influencing factors through the lens of the dual dynamics of state and market. The findings indicate that: 1) The spatial pattern of NEV enterprises in the PRD has evolved from a “single-core” centered in Shenzhen to a “dual-core” centered in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, with the highest concentration in the boundary areas of Guangzhou-Foshan and Shenzhen-Dongguan. Upstream “raw material” enterprises have dispersed from Shenzhen to Guangzhou, Huizhou, and Zhuhai; midstream “core component” enterprises remain largely concentrated in Shenzhen; downstream “vehicle manufacturing” enterprises are concentrated in Shenzhen and Guangzhou and begin to spread to surrounding areas, with “supporting and aftermarket” enterprises evolving from a dual-core pattern in Shenzhen and Guangzhou to multiple hotspots. 2) Both state and market dynamics influence the spatiotemporal pattern of NEV enterprises in the PRD, with the effects on the distribution of NEV enterprises in the PRD varying across development stages, geographic locations and industry chain segments. In terms of development stages, the influencing factors of enterprise spatial layout shift from the dual drive of government and market to market forces dominance. With respect to geographic locations, the eastern PRD is more sensitive to market dynamics, while the western PRD sees a relatively more prominent role of the government. As for the industrial chain, market forces mainly affect the upstream and midstream, while the downstream and extended segments are under the dual influence of both state and market forces.

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.

Based on data from 668 national and provincial tourist resorts in China, this study employs GIS spatial analysis and the Pearson correlation coefficient to explore the spatial distribution characteristics of tourist resorts. It also discusses the influencing factors of spatial distribution characteristics and explores their impact mechanisms, considering natural factors such as topography, rivers, weather conditions, and resource conditions, as well as socio-economic factors such as economic development, market conditions, transportation, medical standards, and government policies. The results indicate that: 1) The distribution of tourist resorts within the study area is uneven and aggregated, presenting an overall spatial distribution pattern of “one core in the east, two belts in the central region, and three centers in the south”. Specifically, they exhibit spatial distribution features of being “close to lowlands, along gentle slopes, near water bodies, preferring warmer climates, and adjacent to scenic areas”. 2) The spatial distribution of tourist resorts is influenced by both natural and socio-economic factors. In terms of natural resources, they are negatively correlated with altitude, slope, and distance from rivers, but positively correlated with tourism resource density, and are mostly located in warm and humid regions. In terms of socio-economic factors, the number of tourist resorts is significantly positively correlated with gross domestic product (GDP), per capita GDP, tourism revenue, output value of the tertiary industry, and permanent resident population (P<0.01); significantly positively correlated with the number of stations and water transportation passenger volume (P<0.05); negatively correlated with the number of inbound tourist arrivals and starred hotels; and uncorrelated with the number of ports (P>0.05).

Identification and measurement of polycentric spatial structure is essential for formulating and evaluating urban spatial strategies, with morphology and function serving as two fundamental perspectives. However, most of the researches on polycentric spatial structure examine the functional and the morphological in isolation, failing to integrate them systematically. This is not conducive to establishing a scientific understanding of urban spatial structure and thereby affects the rationality and effectiveness of urban planning decisions. As a key link connecting urban transportation system and land use, accessibility is an ideal tool to understand morphological-functional spatial structure. Based on data at sub-district scale from the 1% National Population Sampling Survey in 2015, this paper performs entropy-based spatial interaction model to estimate job accessibility and residence accessibility. We first use Moran’s I index and hot analysis method to describe the spatial agglomeration pattern of job accessibility and residence accessibility, and then explore characteristics of urban spatial structure and its industrial variations. The results show that: 1) It suggests that accessibility in producer service sector and consumer services sector is the highest and has strongest spatial agglomeration degree; accessibility in manufacturing sector is the lowest and has weakest spatial agglomeration degree; the public service industry is in-between. 2) Producer services sector presents typical monocentric urban spatial structure at job and residence levels; consumer services sector presents mono-centricity at job level and polycentricity at residence level; public services sector presents polycentric spatial structure at job and residence levels; manufacturing sector presents polycentricity at job level and decentralized spatial structure at residence level. This is the result of multiple paths such as housing suburbanization, industrial suburbanization and education suburbanization under the joint action of the government and the market. 3) In general, Shanghai shows polycentric spatial structure at job and residence levels, and the residence suburbanization is more obvious than job suburbanization. There is big difference in urban spatial structure between Shanghai and Beijing due to industrial structure and spatial layout. As China’s built environment and national conditions are quite different from those of western countries, urban spatial structure (such as high-quality transport corridor type) between Shanghai and Western cities is also significantly different. This paper builds polycentric spatial structure framework based on accessibility, and focuses on their industry heterogeneity. The above conclusions bring new insights for optimizing urban spatial structure through industrial sector layout and transportation planning.

Identifying the spatial non-equilibrium characteristics of digitalization development in the tourism industry can provide scientific basis for bridging the “digital divide” in the tourism industry and optimizing the spatial layout of new quality productivity in the tourism industry. Based on the connotation characteristics of digitalization in the tourism industry, a comprehensive evaluation system was constructed, and the entropy weight TOPSIS method, Dagum Gini coefficient, Kernel density estimation, and Markov chain analysis were used to explore the spatial non-equilibrium characteristics and dynamic evolution trends of tourism digitalization level from 2011 to 2022 in China. The findings indicate that: 1) According to the entropy weight TOPSIS method, it can be concluded that the digitalization level of tourism industry has maintained a steady upward trend from 2011 to 2022 in China, with eastern provinces and cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangdong leading the way. The spatial differentiation characteristics of the digitalization level of tourism industry in China were gradually emerging, roughly showing a gradient distribution state of “high in the east and low in the west” and “high in the south and low in the north”. The spatial imbalance phenomenon of the digitalization level of tourism industry among provinces in China was significant. 2) In terms of regional differences and decomposition, the overall difference in the digitalization level of the tourism industry shows a fluctuating downward trend, and the imbalance between regions shows a shrinking trend. The overall regional differences were in a state of “northeast>east>west>central”, but inter provincial differences have become the main source of the “digital divide” in the tourism industry, and narrowing regional differences has become a key direction to bridge the digital level gap of the tourism industry in China. 3) According to the Kernel density estimation method, it can be concluded that the conditional probability density curve was distributed along a 45° diagonal, and the dynamic distribution of digitalization level in the tourism industry was relatively stable. After taking into account geographical spatial factors, the digitalization level of tourism industry in China showed a shrinking trend during the research period. 4) According to the Markov chain method, it can be inferred that if geographical spatial effects are not taken into account, the digitalization level of tourism industry in China shows the phenomenon of “Matthew effect” and “club convergence”; After incorporating geographic spatial effects, as the level of spatial lag in neighboring provinces increases, the digitalization level of local tourism industry was significantly affected by the spatial spillover effects of neighboring provinces.

Sustainability of human-earth system has become a pivotal focus in global development research, with risk assessment and governance identified as key components and fundamental safeguards in the pursuit of sustainable development. This study begins by reviewing the conceptual definitions and classifications of risk, as well as general methods for risk assessment, early warning, and governance, to preliminarily explore the connotation of sustainability risk in human-earth system. Drawing on general risk assessment methodologies, this study constructs an integrated framework for evaluating sustainability risk in human-earth system, which incorporates both internal risks (e.g., stagnation or regression in meeting sustainable development goals) and external risks (e.g., disruptions from multiple stressors) through multi-method evaluations. Finally, based on the four key processes of traditional risk early warning systems, this study proposes a dynamic, graded technical system for early warning of sustainability risk in human-earth system and discusses a collaborative governance model underpinned by systems thinking. Overall, our study contributes to a deeper understanding of sustainability risk in human-earth system, offering theoretical support for improving governance capacities and promoting the co-evolution of regional sustainability and resilience.

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 formation and transformation of soil organic carbon (SOC) are complex processes, and their responses to agricultural management practices often exhibit a lag effect. To better understand the distribution characteristics and driving mechanisms of microbial residue carbon within different SOC fractions, this study investigated the effects of four improved tillage and cropping systems (deep plowing-continuous cropping, deep plowing-rotation, shallow rotation-continuous cropping, shallow rotation-rotation, using conventional tillage fields as controls). These results showed that mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) was a major component of SOC in the study region. Although total SOC and particulate organic carbon (POC) did not significantly differ among treatments (P>0.05), MAOC content was significantly affected (P<0.05), with the highest value observed in the control [(11.67±0.11) g/kg] and the lowest in the deep plowing-rotation treatment [(10.20±0.36) g/kg]. The contribution of microbial residue carbon to MAOC ranged from 21.07% to 28.76%, with fungal residues [(14.69±0.19) g/kg] being the dominant source. Notably, the shallow rotary tillage with continuous cropping treatment significantly enhanced microbial residue carbon accumulation in MAOC, thereby improving SOC stability, while the shallow rotation-rotation system showed a trend toward increasing POC content, potentially enlarging the active carbon pool. This contrast may be attributed to differences in straw incorporation patterns, as compared with shallow rotary tillage, deep plowing promotes the uniform incorporation of straw throughout the tillage layer (0–25 cm), thereby facilitating a more even distribution of carbon inputs and alleviating the accumulation of plant residues in the surface layer (0–10 cm). Overall, soil nutrient status (total phosphorus, C∶N and C∶P ratios), together with mineralogical and biological properties (free iron and microbial residue carbon), are key determinants of the relative proportions of particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) in soils. Agricultural management practices may indirectly affect the content and reactivity of Fed through regulating carbon input intensity, redox conditions, and soil nutrient status, which in turn modulates the formation and accumulation of microbial residue carbon and ultimately determines the partitioning between POC and MAOC. These findings provide a theoretical basis for optimizing farmland carbon management and supporting policy development for carbon sequestration in black soils of northeast China.

Based on panel data of grain output and year-end population size from 285 cities during 2000—2022, this study employs spatial analysis, the spatial mismatch index of grain supply and demand, and a two-way fixed effects model to explore the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors of China’s grain output and supply-demand relationships. The results show that: 1) The growth rate of grain output has slowed, with a decline in grain output in major sales areas among the three primary grain output and sales zones. The spatial clustering of grain output has intensified, with high-value clusters concentrating in the northeast and Huang-Huai-Hai regions, while low-value clusters are shifting to South China and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The spatial distribution center of grain output has shifted northeastward. 2) The per capita grain availability has increased from above the subsistence level to exceeding the food security threshold, while the spatial mismatch between grain output and demand has intensified. Per capita grain availability in major production areas has increased significantly, with an abundant grain supply. In production-consumption balance areas, per capita grain availability has slightly declined, resulting in a relatively tight supply. In major sales areas, per capita grain availability has decreased markedly, leading to a very constrained supply. Cities with abundant grain supply are concentrated in the northern regions, while cities with very limited grain supply are clustered in the southern regions. Cities with relatively abundant or relatively scarce supply are scattered across various areas. Many cities in major production areas and production-consumption balance areas have seen improvements in the grain supply-demand relationship, while many cities in major sales areas have experienced a deterioration in this relationship. 3) There is a significant positive relationship between grain output and factors such as sown area, technological progress, government intervention, climate, and farmland quality. Among these, sown area is the key factor driving grain output growth. In contrast, grain prices, urbanization, and agricultural labor force have a significant negative impact on grain output, with urbanization having the most pronounced negative effect. The findings of this study can provide references for adjusting China’s grain production-consumption divisions, alleviating the grain supply-demand imbalance, and promoting grain production.

To effectively leverage the positive role of the digital economy in enhancing the resilience of the tourism system is crucial for ensuring the stable and long-term development of the tourism economy and achieving high-quality growth. To this end, the article integrates multi-source data to construct a panel dataset of 285 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2011 to 2019, analyzes the evolutionary characteristics between the digital economy and tourism industry resilience from the spatial and temporal dimensions, and empirically examines the influence process, regional heterogeneity, and the mechanism of action by using the panel spatial Durbin model. The research finds that: 1) The digital economy and the resilience of the tourism industry as a whole are on an upward trend, and the development gap between cities has narrowed slightly in a converging trend. In terms of spatial distribution, the former shows a “ladder-like” pattern of high in the east and low in the west, while the latter shows a spatial evolution pattern of “central collapse”. 2) Digital economy and tourism industry resilience have strong spatial agglomeration characteristics, while the two show significant positive spatial correlation. 3) The digital economy not only enhances the resilience of the local tourism industry, but also acts on neighboring cities through spatial spillover effects. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the degree of influence of the direct effect is: Northeast > East > West > Central, and high digital economy region > low digital economy region; at the same time, the Central Region shows a negative spillover effect, while the high digital economy region shows a significant positive spillover effect. 4) Mechanism tests indicate that tourism innovation capability and tourism market influence are the two major paths through which the digital economy enables tourism industry resilience. The results of the study can provide a policy basis for effectively promoting the digital transformation of multiple tourism actors at the municipal scale, improving the ability to respond to crisis events, and promoting the sustainable and high-quality development of the tourism industry.

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.

Due to differences in natural environments and levels of socio-economic development across different regions, finding evidence of when human activities began to have a significant and synchronous impact on the earth system has become a key issue in Anthropocene research. As an artificial radionuclide, ¹³⁷Cs is considered as a suitable stratigraphic marker of the Anthropocene because it is widely distributed around the world, closely related to human activities, clearly marked and easily recognized in sediments. The ¹³⁷Cs accumulation peaks of ¹³⁷Cs formed by human activities such as nuclear tests and nuclear accidents, as an important chronological marker, has been widely used for dating lacustrine sediments. Therefore, exploring the regional spatial distribution characteristics and patterns of ¹³⁷Cs can provide significant evidence for a deeper understanding of the temporal characteristics of the Anthropocene and global synchronous signals. This study collected and compiled ¹³⁷Cs data from 79 lakes and wetland sediment cores within China, examining their the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics and and exploreing the starting boundary of the Anthropocene. The results show that: 1) The ¹³⁷Cs sedimentary records in lacustrine drill coresalmost detect the accumulation peak of 1963 in China, indicating that the main chronological marker layer of 1963 is clearly distinguishable and easily recognizable. With distinct chronological characteristics, the ¹³⁷Cs accumulation peak of 1986 in the sedimentary drill cores can be used as a secondary chronological marker, but its reliability needs to be confirmed in combination with other dating indicators. 2) The records of ¹³⁷Cs exhibit significant spatio-temporal differentiation across China, which influenced by multiple factors, including topography, precipitation, environmental factors, erosion by runoff, and various human activities. Overall, the specific activity of ¹³⁷Cs shows a decreasing trend from north to south, and the specific activity values of ¹³⁷Cs reached the highest level in the lacustrine sedimentary of the Chinese region during the period of 1960 to 1980. 3) The main ¹³⁷Cs accumulation peak of 1963 in lacustrine drill cores has clear chronological characteristics and is a reliable chronological layer marker in China, which can be used as a potential stratigraphic evidence to indicate the impact of human activities on regional environments.

Three northeastern provinces as China’s shrinking city agglomeration area, it is characterized by a concentrated area of shrinking cities and growing cities with significant differences in resource allocation. Conducting a comparative analysis of the coordinated development of urbanization and habitat quality between growing and shrinking cities is essential for achieving a balanced and sustainable development of human-land relations in the northeastern region. This study identifies growing and shrinking cities in the three northeastern provinces by utilizing demographic data. A comparative study was conducted using the composite index method, InVEST model, coupled degree of coordination model, and geodetector to analyze the spatial-temporal evolution as well as the influencing factors of the coordinated development of urbanization and habitat quality between the two types of cities from 2010 to 2020.The results show that: 1) The urbanization level and habitat quality of the two types of cities have opposite global trends and a clear mismatch, with the urbanization level of the growing cities being higher than that of shrinking cities as a whole, while their habitat quality index is lower than that of shrinking cities. 2) Urbanization and habitat quality in both types of cities have a significant negative spatial correlation, showing certain spatial aggregation characteristics. 3) There is a general upward trend in the degree of coupled coordination between urbanization level and habitat quality in both types of cities, but the degree of coupled coordination is generally higher in the growing cities and lower in the shrinking cities. 4) Demographic profile, economic performance, land use and public services are important determinant dimensions of spatial divergence in coupled coordination, but the spatial determinant dimensions and indicators of growing and shrinking cities are significantly differentiated. Based on the research findings, it can be considered to formulate differentiated development strategies for shrinking cities and growing cities in the future, in order to promote high-quality collaborative urban development.

The concept of “intersectionality”, which originated in Black feminist legal studies in the late 1980s, aims to reveal how multiple identities—such as gender, race, and class—intertwine within power relations to jointly shape unique experiences of social inequality. Since its introduction into Human Geography, the discipline’s core contribution has been its “spatialization” of the concept. By examining abstract power relations within concrete geographical contexts (such as place, scale, and the body), geography provides intersectionality with a unique analytical capacity, preventing it from becoming merely an abstract identity politics or a generalized critical tool. This article aims to systematically review this international frontier and to provide depth and expansion for the localized transformation and comparative reference of Human Geography in China. The article first outlines the conceptual evolution and methodology of intersectionality. Second, it explores the spatiality of intersectional thought and demonstrates how the theory is concretized through spatial analysis by comparing its applications in childhood, migration, and feminist geographies. Finally, it traces the concept’s path of transformation from academic critique to social practice. The significance of this article lies in clarifying why intersectionality is a necessary perspective for deeply understanding contemporary spatial inequality. The research indicates that by continuously enriching its spatialized theories and methods, the intersectional perspective helps geography better fulfill its contemporary mission: not only to profoundly explain spatial inequality in the world but also to actively participate in the social practice of changing it.