Global energy governance is an important form of shaping energy discourse, and its essence is a network of relationships among energy stakeholders around diversified energy issues. In previous studies, the structure, functions, performance, and complex impacts of various energy organizations have dominated, while the overall structure and internal relationships of global energy governance have not been further explored. This study argues that there is an interactive relationship between energy organizations and actual trade, and it is necessary to combine the two relationships to further present and explain the global energy governance structure. This study uses the relationship between countries in energy organizations and energy trade to construct a global energy governance network and to explore its basic structure and its trend of "boundary reconstruction". The study found that: (1) There are significant structural differences between energy organization networks and energy trade networks, with the US and Russia dominating both networks. (2) China has become a major energy trading nation but is weak in the global energy organization cooperation system and lacks formal governance cooperation with traditional energy interests. (3) The global energy governance system has a typical "Core-Fringe" structure and is divided into the EU, Asia-Pacific and North America, with OECD countries occupying the core and net energy exporters (ASEAN and the Middle East) on the periphery. (4) The "boundary reconstruction" focuses on the "nested scales" in the coexistence of globalization and regionalization of energy governance. This is a significant difference from the "fragmentation" or "unification" that has been judged in studies. Globalization provides a platform for global governance and breaks the inherent boundaries of interest between the main bodies of production and consumption, while regionalization reflects that the main regions have formed internal interdependent groups. This study can further clarify the relationship among major countries within the global energy governance system and provide ideas for further exploration of the global energy governance system in the future.

The strategic application of foreign aid is a prominent feature of the US aid policy, and it is important to study the evolution of the US foreign aid to grasp its geostrategic direction. In the Western Pacific region, ASEAN countries have significant military and economic strategic value due to their unique geographical location. As a result, they have long been the focus of the US aid. Based on this, using the foreign aid data of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and with the help of GIS and other technical methods, this paper portrays the evolving characteristics of the spatial structure of the US aid to ASEAN countries since the beginning of the 21st century and explores its geostrategic connotations. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) From 2001 to 2019, the overall aid scale of the US aid to ASEAN countries showed a phased growth trend, which was basically positively related to the positioning of ASEAN countries in the US geostrategy. (2) In terms of the spatial distribution of aid scales, the US aid to ASEAN countries shows multipolar characteristics, with its treaty allies, South China Sea dispute countries and China-friendly countries as key recipients. However, the types of aid funding vary across recipient countries, with treaty allies and South China Sea dispute countries receiving both economic aid funding and military aid funding as priorities, while China-friendly countries are mainly economic aid funding. (3) In terms of the type structure of aid programs, the US aid to ASEAN countries shows significant structural heterogeneity, with military security programs focusing on treaty allies and South China Sea dispute countries, economic and scientific programs gradually spreading to South China Sea dispute countries and China-friendly countries, humanitarian programs depending on the specific considerations of the real situation, and ideological programs gradually concentrating on China-friendly countries. (4) The US has adopted a differentiated aid strategy toward ASEAN countries, and its main geostrategic objectives include: consolidating relations with treaty-allied countries and escalating cooperation to firmly secure geostrategic implementation; drawing in relations with South China Sea dispute countries to strengthen their geostrategic pivot role; and upgrading relations with China-friendly countries and enhancing contacts to spread US democratic values. The results of the study will help further understand and grasp US geostrategic decisions, and contribute to China's peaceful development path.

In the past few decades, the knowledge network of cities in China has developed rapidly, which deeply affects the function of cities as the incubator of technology enterprises. This study sets out to gain a better understanding of the interplay between knowledge network embededness and technology enterprise incubation ability of cities in China. To this end, information on patent transferred data is subjected to ownership linkage model to construct the urban knowledge network, resulting in a cross-sectional dataset with 274 cities in China in 2020. Network centrality indicators including degree, betweeness, eigenvector and coreness are used to measure the network embedding characteristics, the number of registrations of small and medium-sized technology enterprises is used to represent the entrepreneurship incubation ability, and simultaneous equation models are employed to conduct the econometric analysis. Two conclusions are drawn. First, the empirical results show a mutual promotion relationship between the embedding characteristics of cities in the knowledge network and their incubation ability of technology enterprises. The improvement in network power positively affects the incubation nursery function of technology enterprises by improving the utilization ability of cities' network knowledge, and the agglomeration and development of technology enterprises also positively affects the network power of cities by improving their knowledge exchange ability. Second, there is an interactive spatial dependence effect between urban knowledge network embededness of cities and their incubation function of technology enterprise. The embedding characteristics of cities in knowledge network are positively affected by the technology enterprises incubation ability of neighboring cities, and the incubation ability of technology enterprises of cities is also positively dependent on the network embedding characteristics of neighboring cities. In addition, a distance decay characteristic of the spatial interaction effects is identified. Taken together, the results indicate the entrepreneurial ecosystems of cities at different spatial scales are interconnected through knowledge pipeline effects and spatial spillovers effect, forming a complex and open entrepreneurship ecological network on a national scale. At the same time, as the active agents of entrepreneurship activities, the technology enterprises could create the network connections that benefit their own development. In the future, researchers should analyze the spatial heterogeneity of the interaction between knowledge network embeddedness and technology enterprise incubation in Chinese cities, and pay attention to the impact mechanisms and their feedbacks of the embeddedness of cities in knowledge networks to entrepreneurial ecosystems.

With the help of highway passenger flow big data, this paper studies the spatial distribution pattern and agglomeration mechanism of China's highway passenger transportation network, and systematically analyzes the "multi-center, multi-hierarchy, multi-node" hierarchical system and evolution mode of the regional urban network. The research shows that China's highway passenger transportation network generally presents a regional central agglomeration distribution pattern. The distance attenuation and geographical proximity distribution characteristics of highway passenger transportation links well reflect the spatial correlation of geography; the regional spatial agglomeration and hierarchical overlapping phenomena of highway passenger transportation links are the characteristics of the distribution law of geographic spatial heterogeneity. The provincial-scale community detection of China's highway passenger transportation network shows that the detection results are similar to the community division of provincial administrative divisions, and the larger regional-scale community detection results are similar to the spatial division of China's seven major geographical regions. This reflects that the agglomeration characteristics of highway passenger transportation links are regional spatial agglomeration distribution with central cities at all levels as the core. With the improvement of regional development stage and economic development level, China's urban network obviously presents a gradual spatial evolution process from single-center to multi-center, weak-hierarchy to multi-hierarchy, and few-node to multi-node from west to east. Communities such as Northwest China, Northeast China, Hubei, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Guangxi, and Yunnan have a network system of "single-center, weak-hierarchy, and few-node", while communities such as Guangdong, Chengdu-Chongqing and Shandong present a network structure of "dual-center, multi-hierarchy, and multi-node". The Shanghai-Jiangsu-Anhui community has developed the most mature "multi-center, multi-hierarchy, multi-node" urban network system. The research uses space instead of time, and divides the evolution process of urban network of the regional system into five stages: the development of node cities, the growth of local centers, the formation of provincial centers, the agglomeration of regional centers, and the emergence of national centers. The evolution direction points to a network-based integrated spatial pattern of "multi-center, multi-hierarchy, and multi-node". The research provides a research reference for revealing the network-based integrated development mechanism, hierarchical system and evolution pattern of metropolitan circles and urban agglomerations.

The low efficiency of university technology transfer has become a real problem that need to be solved urgently in China. In the context of the in-depth implementation of innovation-driven strategy, it has important reference value to realize the goal of building world S&T power that explores the transfer law from the perspective of university supply and regional demand. Using university-assigned patent data from 2001 to 2018, this study investigates the spatiotemporal characteristic and influencing mechanism of university technology transfer network in China from university-city perspective based on social network analysis, GIS spatial analysis, and network dynamic model. Some findings were obtained as follows: (1) With the growing number of universities and cities involved in university technology transfer network, the scale of the network is expanding rapidly, and the differences among university and city nodes in terms of the scope and quantity of technology transfer are both enlarging. The technology of university is mainly transferred from comprehensive and science and engineering universities belonging to 985 Project and 211 Project to municipalities, provincial capitals, and regional central cities. (2) University technology transfer is highly geographically localized with a significant border effect. On the one hand, high-level local university technology transfer is mainly distributed in municipalities and provincial capitals, because these cities are characterized by higher absorptive capacity with numerous prestigious universities. On the other hand, once it crosses the border of the city where the university is located, university technology transfer decreases significantly since geographical distance does not substantially impact university technology transfer. Due to the existence of substantial university technology transfer among core cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chengdu, nonlocal university technology transfer network is trapezoidal-shaped and anchored by five metropolitan areas, namely Beijing-Tianjin, Chengdu-Chongqing, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Harbin-Changchun-Shenyang. (3) The formation and evolution of university technology transfer network are co-driven by university level, university type, geographical distance, co-location, technological compatibility, and urban technology absorptive capacity. Accordingly, it is suggested to promote the construction of university technology transfer system at city scale according to local conditions and strengthen the construction of multi-scale university technology transfer network in core cities.

In the critical period of China′s structural transformation and spatial remodeling, it is of great significance to explore the impact mechanism of industrial structure upgrading on efficiency of urban land use, for solving the dilemma of path dependence of industrial development and inefficient utilization of urban land in resource-based cities, especially in resource-exhausted cities. Based on the panel data of 115 prefecture-level resource-based cities in China between 2000 and 2019, we examined the spatio-temporal patterns of industrial structure upgrading and efficiency of urban land use for Chinese resource-based cities, using the industrial structure hierarchy index and the Super SBM-undesirable model. By adopting the Tobit model, we further explored the heterogenous impact mechanism of industrial structure upgrading on urban land use efficiency in resource-based cities. The results show that: (1) The industrial structure upgrading of China′s resource-based cities has been proved to be effective, which is more obvious in regenerating cities, coal-based cities, and ferrous metal-based cities. A large number of resource-based cities in China however still have the path dependence of economic development dominated by the secondary industry, especially for many growing cities and recessionary cities. The average level of urban land use efficiency in resource-based cities presented a rising trend in fluctuation. Many regenerating and growing cities with good economic foundation and resource endowments remained at a high level. (2) The industrial structure upgrading of resource-based cities has not yet formed a general positive driving effect on the improvement of ULUE. The impact mechanism has significant heterogeneity in different types of cities, only showing significant positive impact in regenerating cities. (3) The industrial structure upgrading of resource-based cities drives the dynamic evolution of ULUE through three channels, e.g. promotion of economic output, optimization of factor allocation, and environmental pollution control. At this stage, the lower-level land economic density, the imbalance of urban land use structure, and the high negative externality of environmental pollution are the main cruxes restricting the improvement of ULUE in China′s resource-based cities. Based on the local conditions of different cities, differentiated transformation strategies should be taken to accelerate the formation of benign interactive mechanism between industrial transformation and land use transformation.

In China, which is in the stage of rapid urbanization, a number of shrinking cities have emerged in the wave of globalization and regional integration, and this trend is still intensifying, which has triggered the exploration of the development effects of shrinking cities in academic circles. From the perspective of urban intensive land use, combined with urban land intensity indexes ( more significant urban shrinkage effect, lower land intensity; less significant urban shrinkage effect, higher land intensity), this paper takes the Northeast China with the most representative and typical urban shrinkage as examples, and uses the comparative inductive analysis method to diagnose and reveal the intensive land shrinkage effects and its stage, types and spatial distribution characteristics during 2010-2019. The results show that: (1) The 15 shrinking cities of the three provinces in Northeast China have the shrinkage effects of urban intensive land use, and have the characteristics of type and stage development, the corresponding average score of land intensity shows: non-shrinking cities > shrinking cities, comprehensive-shrinking cities > resource-dependent shrinking cities > siphonic-shrinking cities > location-constrained shrinking cities, initial shrinkage > mid-term shrinkage > late shrinkage. (2) The pattern of land intensification is highly consistent with the spatial distribution of urban shrinkage identification: the cities included in the lowest level of intensification are all shrinking cities, and the cities included in the highest level of intensification are non-shrinking cities, showing the spatial characteristics of "core-periphery "+ "high in the south and low in the north". (3) The phenomenon of urban shrinkage affects the volume of elements "flow" and is transmitted through the "input-output" chain, which has an impact on the urban land intensity. Therefore, the evaluation indicators of intensive land use embraces the combination of the variable indicators reflecting the connotation of shrinkage such as the "outflow" of development elements and the stock indicators accumulated over the years of development benefits. Then based on this, the development characteristics of the stage, type and spatial distribution pattern of intensive land use effect of shrinking cities are explained. Urban shrinkage is a complex socio-economic phenomenon and development problem. The mechanism and effects on cities still need to be supported by richer research results in order to adapt to the spatial implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan blueprint (2021-2025) for the comprehensive revitalization in Northeast China.

This study focuses on the trend and mechanism of highly educated population migrating down to urban hierarchy. Based on the recruitment data of Wuhan's primary and middle school teachers, we analyse the downward migration trend of candidates from first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) to the second-tier city (Wuhan), and explain its mechanism by drawing on the theory of stickiness. The results of binary logistic regression indicate that moving down the urban hierarchy has become one of the significant migration trends of the highly educated population driven by formal employment. In our case, nearly a quarter of inter-provincial migration samples show a willingness to move down the urban hierarchy, characterized by a higher proportion of non-fresh graduates than fresh graduates. For first-tier cities, Beijing has the highest proportion of highly educated population migrating down the urban hierarchy, followed by Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Meanwhile, Beijing has the highest proportion of fresh graduates while Shenzhen has the highest proportion of non-fresh graduates in this downward migration. This downward trend is deeply influenced by the stickiness of place, the individual factors and the urban factors. The highly educated population is back to Wuhan (the capital city of Hubei) from first-tier cities. Additional factors including age, education background, and the city level of hukou place also have certain effects on the downward tendency. In particular, young people or graduates from "Double-First Class" universities are more likely to move down the urban hierarchy. Furthermore, unlike the return migration in the West, which is influenced by religion, race, family, and personal values, both the stickiness of the place of hukou based on regional affiliation and the stickiness of the place of study based on educational affiliation profoundly affect the choice of job-choosing migration of highly educated population in China, leading to the migration down the urban hierarchy. This study demonstrates the dynamic mechanism of the trend of highly educated talents moving down the urban hierarchy in depth, which provides both a theoretical and an empirical basis for policy-making for highly educated population migration.

Relocation is one of the most important driving forces for urban spatial reconstruction, and understanding its behavioral mechanism is of great significance for improving the housing market structure and adjusting the direction of spatial development. However, previous studies mostly focus on the relocation between urban and rural areas, there is still limited research on relocation within large cities where both formal (represented by commercial housing and affordable housing) and informal (represented by urban villages) dual residential spaces coexist, and traditional studies mostly use questionnaires, which have limitations such as one-sidedness. Based on life course theory and household relocation theory, this study identifies the distribution of dichotomous settlements and relocation flows in Shenzhen using multi-source data such as mobile phone data from December 2018 to December 2019. We select indicators from three aspects: relocation flow characteristics, neighborhood attributes and dual residential space types. K-means clustering based on principal component analysis is conducted to explore its relocation patterns, structural characteristics and motivational laws. The results show that: (1) The dual relocation in Shenzhen can be divided into three levels: intra-informal relocation, formal and informal interactive relocation, and intra-formal relocation. There is an increasing trend in the age and living quality of the relocatees among the three levels, but they all present a commuting orientation; (2) The main part of dual relocation is short-distance migration, forming four large-scale relocation network clusters: Bao'an and Nanshan, Longhua, Futian and Luohu, Longgang. And the overall direction is from Guannei to Guanwai, showing a suburbanization trend. (3) The relocation patterns can be clustered into four categories: community-based, upgrade-based, family-based, and career-based, and eight subcategories appear after we combine the influence of dual residential space. There are significant differences in the attributes and motivations of different categories of relocatees, which generally reflect the relocation process of people under different life courses. Finally, this study proposes differentiated spatial governance policy recommendations for different relocation patterns. Considering the fact that there are obvious dual structure characteristics in Shenzhen housing market, this paper brings formal and informal residential spaces into the study, which is of great significance for understanding the relationship between relocation and housing market selection, as well as the management of dual housing market.

As the forefront of China' s marine economic development, the continental coastal zone of the East China Sea has a significant strategic position. Exploring the spatiotemporal variation characteristics and driving factors of the coastal zone under high-intensity development will help to reveal the evolution process and law of the development intensity of the coastal zone, and promote the development of coastal resources, environment and society. Sustainable and high-quality economic development. This study took the continental coast of the East China Sea as the research object, and used the coastline and land use data of the 7th period from 1990 to 2020 to reveal the characteristics of the development and utilization intensity of the continental coastline and coastal land use in the East China Sea, and explored the driving factors of high-intensity development by using the geodetector method. The results showed that: (1) The average moving speed of the coastline of the East China Sea was 32.34 m/year, and the average moving speed of the coastline in the northern region (43.54 m/year) was higher than that in the south (20.23 m/year). The average moving speed of the coastline in the south bank of Hangzhou Bay was the fastest in many periods, while that in the Xiamen-Zhangzhou region was slower. In terms of spatial distribution, the areas with more dramatic coastline changes were mainly concentrated in estuaries, bays, and coastal areas with higher urban levels. (2) The area of farmland, forest, grassland, water area, sea area, etc. continued to decrease, and the area of urban construction and industrial and mining land continued to increase. The land development intensity in the southern and northern parts of the coastal zone was relatively high, while the land development intensity in the central region was relatively weak. (3) Natural factors established the macroscopic pattern of land development intensity in the continental coastal zone of the East China Sea, and social and economic factors played an important role in promoting it.

Population and economy are essential problems of human social development and many studies have proved that there is a close correlation between them. Population flow is an important reason affecting the process of regional economic equilibrium, while regional economic disequilibrium is a vital driving force of population flow. Their spatio-temporal pattern and current relationship are constraint and support for regional sustainable development. Unbalanced development has become increasingly prominent in China, but the underdeveloped regions have not received enough attention. As minority autonomous region and southwest frontier region of China, Tibet has long been the only provincial concentrated contiguous poverty-stricken area. It is of great significance to examine the relationship between population and economy of this kind of area. This article made a spatial-temporal study on the inequality pattern of population-economy in Tibet during 2009-2018 by combining geographic concentration, Gini coefficient and inconsistent index. Panel data regression and spatio-temporal weighted regression model were used to analyze the factors affecting the inconsistency of population and economy distribution. The results show that the population and economy agglomeration demonstrate a stable and disequilibrium pattern which is characterized by high in the southeast and low in the northwest. The area with high geography concentration has strong coupling with the distribution of river valley plains, traffic trunks and administrative centers. The overall imbalance of population-economy is weakening. However, the spatial distribution and development trend of inconsistent index are disparate in different counties. Human capital, economic strength and industrial structure are the leading factors affecting the inconsistency of population-economy whose absolute value of the influence coefficient are more than 10%, followed by government regulation capacity, road infrastructure, physical capital and medical infrastructure. The effect of social consumption level is not significant. Spatial differences in effects on inconsistent index indicate that the effect of human capital and industrial structure on most counties are more reflected in attracting population. The influence of economic strength, physical capital, medical infrastructure and government regulation capacity are mainly reflected in promoting economic development, and the reach of economy strength covers all counties. Compared with other influencing factors, the spatial heterogeneity of the impact of road infrastructure and social consumption on inconsistent index are the most obvious.

Exploring the spatio-temporal patterns and influencing factors of the agricultural science and technology parks (ASTPs) is of great significance for optimizing the layout of ASTPs and promoting the high-quality development of regional agriculture. This paper takes the national and provincial ASTPs in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) as the research objects, and uses a range of methods that include standard deviational ellipse, kernel density estimation, exploratory spatial data analysis, spatial variation function, geographic detector model and other methods to explore spatio-temporal patterns, evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the ASTPs from 2001 to 2021. The research results show that: (1) the ASTPs have experienced three development stages in the YRB: the pilot construction (2001-2009), the comprehensive promotion (2010-2016) and the innovation and quality improvement (2017-2021). (2) From 2001 to 2021, the overall distribution situation of the national and provincial ASTPs was gradually consistent in the study area, and three main concentrated distribution areas have been formed, namely the Hehuang Valley, the Guanzhong Plain and the alluvial plain in the lower Yellow River. (3) The overall spatial correlation characteristics of the national and provincial ASTPs were different in the YRB, which were reflected in the transformation of the spatial correlation of the national ASTPs from a random pattern to a cluster pattern, while the spatial correlation of the provincial ASTPs has always been a cluster pattern. The local correlation characteristics of the national and provincial ASTPs in the YRB were all characterized by "the same direction agglomeration was strengthened, and the opposite direction agglomeration was weakened". (4) The evolution patterns of the ASTPs in the YRB were affected by both structural and random factors, including industry structure level, economic strength foundation, traffic convenience, number of patents granted, scale of crop cultivation and other factors. The interaction between any two factors were greater than that of single factors, especially the interaction between industrial structure level and traffic convenience or between economic strength foundation and traffic convenience were most prominent. This study will be helpful to enrich and improve the layout theory of the ASTPs, and also has a reference value for the related policy formulation and layout optimization of the ASTPs in the YRB.

In the face of ubiquitous and unpredictable changes, it is necessary to reduce the vulnerability of rural human settlements system, and build resilience to achieve sustainable development and revitalization of rural areas. Based on field investigation and Grounded theory, the study constructs the evolution path and theoretical model of vulnerability-resilience of rural human settlements system from bottom to top, taking Jiaxian County of Loess Plateau as a case study. The results show that: (1) There are seven typical evolution paths in natural ecosystem, socio-economic system, facility and service system. Among them, disturbance comes from terrain and ecology, climate change and disaster, agricultural and rural market, population growth and other categories. Action strategy comes from policy and engineering, and household behavior. The evolution results in each path show the characteristics of vulnerability and resilience. (2) Focusing on the real predicament of rural human settlements system, the government and the households made response actions to reduce vulnerability and build resilience. Household behavioural responses focus on livelihoods and public services, but lack action to address ecological risks, population hollowing and cultural dilution. The government focuses on responding to livelihood and economic difficulties, ecological risks, but lacks concrete actions to build cultural resilience and deal with the vulnerability of public service supply. (3) Disturbance, evolution results, and action constitute the "three-legged" evolution model of vulnerability-resilience of rural human settlements system. There are three coupling relationships among the three legs, and the government layer and the household layer adapt to each other. In the end, the paper puts forward policy suggestions to promote the sustainable development of the system from three aspects. In view of hot categories, the study calls on governments at all levels and researchers to focus on hot categories, such as public services, agricultural and rural markets, income and economic growth, infrastructure, topography and ecology, in policy and spatial planning interventions. Secondly, the study proposes the reconstruction of rural human settlements system from the perspective of the connection between vulnerability and resilience, and seek to build long-term resilience while reducing vulnerability. Thirdly, as household behavior response is an important link in the evolution of rural human settlements system, we should strengthen the implementation of household-level guiding policies.

A systematic exploration on the evolution mechanism of rural settlement patterns in different regions is the foundation of guiding rural settlement reconstruction and constructing rural settlement transformation theory. Residential form is a comprehensive concept of residential space form, life form and cultural form. Based on the perspective of residential form, it would be helpful to reveal the underlying logic of the evolution mechanism of rural settlement patterns and their regional differences. Following the logic of 'phenomenon description - mechanism analysis - typical area comparison', this study takes the regional differences of rural settlement patterns as the breakthrough point, and attempts to explore the temporal and spatial differentiation of rural settlement patterns in different development stages from the perspectives of 'human-land' and 'human-human' relationships. The formation of residential form and its action mechanism on the evolution of traditional rural settlement patterns were constructed, and an empirical study was carried out based on the typical areas in Sichuan Basin and Jitai Basin of China. The research shows that, residential form is a multi-level and multi-dimensional factor derived from the macro evolution of rural settlement pattern, both of which can be interpreted from the dual perspectives of 'human-land' and 'human-human' relationship. The residential from has relatively strong continuity and stability compared to the rural settlement pattern. Particularly, the residential culture form provides fundamental path and endogenous mechanism for the evolution of rural settlement pattern. Rural settlement pattern can be deemed as the result of spatial interpretation and diffusion of residential culture forms in rural territory. Productivity improvements and accidental events could lead to substantial changes in residential forms, further inducing significant changes of the evolution mechanism of rural settlement pattern. Facing the rural revitalization strategy, it is recommended to pay more attention to the research perspective of residential form, to explore the operation mechanism of traditional rural settlements in different regions, their declining mechanisms and evolution paths induced by rapid urbanization, as well as the essential differences of rural settlement governance strategies under the background of rural revitalization. These researches would provide theoretical references for formulating the differentiated schemes of rural settlement revitalization.

As a scientific means to formulate differentiated development policies in rural areas, village classification is an important starting point to understand and clarify the path of regional rural revitalization, and also an important measure to promote the strategy of rural revitalization and systematically solve the problems regarding agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Based on the evolution law of rural regional system and the comprehensive consideration of local subjective development intention, this paper constructs a village classification framework based on the integration perspective of "policy-potential-intention", identifies village types step by step according to the logical idea of "policy impact ? development potential + local development intention", and makes an empirical analysis with 100 administrative villages in Xifeng District as case areas. The results show that: (1) By combing the existing policy documents, 54 village types are identified. The characteristics of these villages are relatively significant, and five village types can be directly identified, namely, local urbanization, agglomeration and promotion, characteristic protection, suburban integration, relocation and withdrawal. The rest of the villages are generally at a low level of development in all aspects, but they have a large number and a wide range of areas, which is the focus and difficulty of rural revitalization. Clarifying the development and revitalization ways of these villages is an inevitable requirement for the continuous promotion of the rural revitalization strategy in the future. Through the coupling analysis of "development potential-local development intention", the development types of these villages can be determined and further identified as three types: consolidation and improvement, agglomeration and promotion, and relocation and withdrawal. (2) The development potential of villages is not completely coupled with local development intention, among which "high potential-low willingness" and "low potential-high willingness" account for 39.13% and 6.52%, respectively. Only through corresponding improvement measures can these villages have the possibility of further transformation and revitalization. (3) The villages in Xifeng District are finally divided into six types: local urbanization, cluster enhancement, suburban integration, characteristic protection, renovation and improvement, and relocation and withdrawal. Based on this, the paper puts forward corresponding ways and measures for rural revitalization.

Since the late Cenozoic, the northeast extension of the Tibetan Plateau has resulted in a strong tectonic uplift in the Qilian Mountains, which formed a complex tectonic pattern and a rapidly changing tectonic landform in the Qilian Mountains. The geomorphological features of the typical river basins reveal the neotectonic activity and geomorphological evolution in the region. The Zhuanglang River basin is located in the eastern segment of Qilian Mountains. As the front area of the northeast expansion of the Tibetan Plateau, the geomorphic parameters of the Zhuanglang River basin are very sensitive to tectonic activities. Extraction of geomorphic information in the Zhuanglang River Basin is helpful to reveal the response of geomorphic to tectonic activity, and to systematically discuss the geomorphic development characteristics and its tectonic significance in the area. There are Zhuanglang River fault, south Tianzhu Basin fault, Gedagou concealed fault and Jinqiang river-Maomaoshan-Laohushan fault in the basin and its margins. Since the late Cenozoic, these faults have been active and control the tectonic deformation, mountain uplift and river drainage geomorphology development in the basin. Based on ALOS DEM 12.5-m data and ArcGIS spatial analysis tool, this study conducted a preliminary analysis on the geomorphic characteristics of Zhuanglang River basin through elevation strip section, river slope index system (K, SL, SL/K) and Hack section, area-elevation integral value (HI) and integral curve (HC). The results show that the topographic relief in the Zhuanglang River area decreases from NW to SE, and the tectonic activity has the rule of east-west differentiation. The K, SL, SL/K and HI values in the west are higher than those in the east, and the up convexity in the west of Hack profile is more obvious than that in the east. The west side of HC curve is mostly convex or S-shaped, and the mutation of SL is mainly controlled by fault tectonic activities. The uplift rate of the west side of the basin is higher than the erosion rate, and the geomorphic evolution is in the early or mature stage. The Zhuanglang River fault still has tectonic activity since the late Cenozoic, and the drainage pattern of the Zhuanglang River area is controlled by reverse wash slip.

The Yellow River flooding and its management in the historical period is one of the important academic issues on the global environmental change and its regional response. Based on multi-source historical data, a basic database of the Lower Yellow River flooding during the Jiaqing-Daoguang Period of the Qing Dynasty was established. Using analysis methods such as cross-spectrum, kernel density estimation, and standard deviation ellipse, the correlation and lagging characteristics of flooding and its management were calculated, and further identificated their spatial and temporal patterns, response process and driving mechanism in different stages. The results show that the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of the area flooding during this period were significant. And the year 1825 as the node, divided the whole period into two main development stages: first increase and then decrease. Its spatial distribution has strong clustering characteristics. The cumulative high-incidence areas in the two stages are concentrated in the vicinity of Huaiqing Prefecture, Kaifeng Prefecture in Henan, and Huaian Prefecture in Jiangsu. The center of gravity of the area has been located in the "East River". The Yellow River flooding and flood control engineering have a significant positive correlation, the significant vibration period is 11 years, and the response interval between the two is about 1 year. After the year 1818, the gravity center of the flooding moved to the "East River", while the flood control engineering expanded to the "South River". This showed the unique phenomenon of "dislocation" in the governance of the study area. The change response relationship between the two from "consistency" to "dislocation" not only shows the process of the Qing court's concept of yellow control from "positive innovation" to "passive defense", but shows the area have lost its important status of "governing river and protecting canal", showing the process of deconstruction and reconstruction as an important geographical location at the turn of the Yellow River and the Canal. This process gave birth to the event of a major diversion of the Yellow River in 1855. It can be described as a historical presentation of the interaction relationship between "Yellow River flooding, concept of river administration and river management" in the Yellow River Basin system.

Shrinking cities have become a focal point of China's urbanization development. In general, city population decline is a basic indicator for identifying shrinking cities, but many previous studies failed to define the spatial area of Chinese cities and their population sizes. In 2014, China introduced a national standard for determining the size of a city in terms of the resident population in the statistical city area. Compared to the administrative area of a city, its statistical area is more in line with its physical urban area. Based on the aforementioned national standard, this study defines shrinking cities as those with a decline in the resident population in the statistical city area. Using data from the sixth and seventh censuses, this study identifies shrinking cities in China from 2010 to 2020, and the resulting database accounts for factors such as expansion of urban built-up areas and adjustments of city administrative divisions. The main findings are as follows. (1) Among the 693 cities in China, there were only 48 shrinking cities from 2010 to 2020, and the majority of these cities had a population decline of less than 50000 people. (2) The shrinking cities were mainly in northeast China and were mostly county-level and small cities, including some resource-based or resource-depleted cities. (3) The city shrinkages were influenced mainly by factors such as economic recession, population aging, low fertility rate, and urban renewal policies. This paper argues that shrinking cities are not yet a major phenomenon in China's urbanization development, and that the inaccurate definitions of shrinking cities in previous studies led to an overestimation of both the number and size of shrinking cities in China. However, as the urbanization rate becomes high and population fertility levels decline in China, the number and size of shrinking cities are likely to grow significantly. Furthermore, accurate accounting, and monitoring of population changes in urban areas such as independent municipal districts, county seats, and development zones are needed.

Scientific and useful composite index algorithms are of great significance for monitoring regional development situation. The key of composite index algorithms is the quantification of weights, among which the quantification of subjective weights is most difficult. In the quantification of subjective weights based on only few experts, it is difficult to accurately quantify the subjectivity, and weights are not representative enough. In the quantification of subjective weights based on a group of experts, there exist difficulties in the complex process of collecting subjective opinions. This study proposes a composite index algorithm that couples the text mining technology and the high-dimensional ranked weights method. The high-dimensional ranked weights method could utilize ranks of weight values of basic indexes or dimensions to calculate comprehensive indexes and reduce the requirement of weight quantification. Text mining technology could automatically extract ranks of weight values based on massive texts and solve the problem of obtaining and quantifying subjective opinions of the group. To prove the usefulness of this algorithm, we mined subjective opinions of government decision-makers based on policy texts so as to annually quantify ranks of weights for dimensions reflecting policy orientations and era characteristics and analyzed development qualities of China's provinces in 2000-2019. Results show that the proposed algorithm is strongly useful, and the evaluation results are reasonable. The overall level of China's provincial development quality increased steadily in the early and middle periods and increased with fluctuations in the later period; eastern coastal provinces form high-level clusters; with the rise of some central and southwestern provinces, the imbalance between the eastern and the western regions has been alleviated to some extent. The application scope of the coupling algorithm in this study is not limited to regional development evaluated in the example. Making full use of data benefits of this period of big data, the algorithm can be utilized to efficiently carry out comprehensive index evaluation and decision support at a low cost.

Border cities serve as significant territorial regions influenced by the nexus of three regional functions: territorial security, development and openness. They are responsible for safeguarding national sovereign security, supporting local development as well as carrying open development space. This paper builds a theoretical framework for analysing the functions of border regions under the security-development-openness nexus and measuring the dynamic evolution of the border region system and its mechanisms in terms of ontology, indicators and measurements, policy discourse and practice. Using Chinese border cities as a case study, the evolution of border functions is analysed from the post-reform and opening-up period to the pre-epidemic period. The main conclusions are: (1) The development of border cities has gone through five periods of cautious exploration (1978-1991), accelerated promotion (1992-1998), sustained development (1999-2008), brand new opening (2009-2019) and security enhancement (2020-). (2) The spatial and temporal differentiation of the territorial functions of China's borders is remarkable. The border development is better in the eastern region than that in the western region. Since the new opening up period, the development function of all sections of the border has been enhanced, but the security function of the Tibetan border still accounts for a large proportion, while the borders of northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Yunnan-Guizhou region have all shifted to open development, and the external economy has made significant improvements, but the dominant function of Chinese border is still the national security. In the post-epidemic period, the traditional model of closed border development should be broken through on the premise of safeguarding territorial security, and the "dual circulation" development pattern should be used as a grip to realise the transformation of border cities into full-scale open border areas and the joint development of border promotion and consolidation.

In order to seize the commanding heights in the new round of technological and industrial revolution, the competition for talents is becoming increasingly fierce. Talents who master international rules and have the ability to communicate across cultures have become the focus of competition among countries. In the process of opening up and promoting the construction of the Belt and Road, China's demand for international talents has risen sharply. Sending students to study abroad is the best way for countries to cultivate international talents. Under the strategic background of accelerating the construction of the world's important talent center, the cultivation and flow of talents has become the focus and frontier of the government and academia. Based on the flow data of international students, this paper constructs a judgment model for the dependence of cross-border talent cultivation, and studies the spatiotemporal evolution of China's cross-border talent cultivation from the perspective of international student flow. The results show that: (1) The growth rate of Chinese students studying abroad is rapidly slowing down, and the spatial agglomeration trend of the global flow of Chinese students is constantly strengthening, mainly concentrated in the four major regions of North America, Western Europe, East Asia and Australia. (2) The growth rate of international students to China is gradually slowing down, and the sources of international students in China are primarily based on geographical proximity, with a high degree of spatial agglomeration, mainly concentrated in the surrounding areas of China such as East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia. At the same time, the number of international students from sub-Saharan Africa has gradually increased, and the source of international students in China has been significantly expanded in spatial scope. (3) The cross-border talent cultivation relationship between China and other countries has shifted from a situation dominated by symmetric dependence to a situation dominated by negative dependence. The positive dependence areas are steadily decreasing, mainly concentrated in North America and Western Europe, while the negative dependence areas are growing rapidly, gradually expanding from Southeast Asia and East Asia to Central Asia, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. This study enriches and expands on the theoretical and methodological integration of talent geography.

As an effective measure to realize the sustainable development of the coastal zone, the study of resilience provides a new perspective for the risk assessment of the natural environment and human activities in the coastal zone. The study puts forward the concept of coastal resilience based on the perspective of human-nature system. Starting from the analysis framework, concept connotation and index composition of coastal resilience, it constructs the HNS-PSR evaluation system of coastal resilience, and takes China's coastal zone as an example for measurement. The research shows that: (1) Most of the existing research on coastal resilience is limited to a single element and lacks integrity. There is little attention paid to the human-nature attribute with strong interaction between coastal zones and the human-nature conflict as the core of the human-nature relationship. It is urgent to structure the underlying logic and analysis framework of coastal resilience based on the human-nature system perspective, and build a comprehensive and multi-angle coastal resilience evaluation system. (2) In the coastal resilience HNS-PSR evaluation system, "human" focus on the functional exertion of population quantity and quality and the materialization of economic, social and cultural attributes with "human" as the carrier; "Nature" not only inherits the "nature" elements of a single land or sea area, but also emphasizes the interaction between sea and land, and provides space and resource elements for human activities; "Human-nature relationship" focuses on the role of the tie in the coordination of interactions between land and sea, as well as the adaptive behavior and results generated by the ability to perceive coastal resistance, adaptation, and renewal. (3) From 2005 to 2019, the resilience of China's coastal zones showed a fluctuating upward trend, with significant inter-provincial differences, and still dominated by pressure resilience. Among them, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Tianjin rank among the top three coastal zones in terms of resilience, while Guangxi, Hebei, and Hainan rank among the bottom three. The study provides a new perspective for the study of coastal resilience, and provides scientific guidance for building a maritime power.

Since the implementation of national cultural park and cultural belt strategies, the significance of holistic conservation and utilization principles for linear cultural heritage has become increasingly prominent, and emerged as an urgent issue to be addressed in the practice and construction related to linear cultural heritage as the carrier. The towns situated along the route and the linear heritage ontology represent significant nodes within the realm of linear cultural heritage. It is widely acknowledged in academic circles that integrated and holistic conservation approaches can unlock the value that surpasses the individual components. However, the current practice and research on linear cultural heritage predominantly focus on individual heritage units and corridor routes, while studies on settlements along the route tend to concentrate more on the settlements themselves rather than the overall settlement system and its correlation with the core heritage at the linear regional scale. There is a need for a deeper exploration of the intrinsic laws governing the interconnectedness between settlements and the core heritage along the route, as well as their collective formation of a complete system. This paper explores the theoretical mechanism for constructing spatial integrity within the cultural corridor system. It emphasizes the value and importance of incorporating associated settlements in the holistic conservation and development of linear cultural heritage. Additionally, it utilizes the spatial identification and association model of the cultural corridor to investigate the establishment of spatial integrity in the linear cultural heritage of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (Beijing section). The results show that: (1) The cultural corridor system, encompassing both urban and rural settlement systems, contributes to the spatial integrity and thematic cultural continuity of linear cultural heritage. (2) The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (Beijing section) has a relatively great influence on the surrounding region, and the affected area of settlements accounts for 30.15% of the total area. The overall correlation between the canal and the settlements along it exhibits a decreasing trend centered on the canal's heritage core, forming a spatial pattern of greater strength in the east part and smaller in the west part. Moreover, under the assumption of equal cultural transmission power, rural settlements demonstrate relatively strong association values compared to urban towns. This study focuses on the academic significance of cultural corridors, determined by the internal spatial structure and functional relationships. It enriches the theoretical framework of linear cultural heritage to some extent and provides theoretical references and a decision-making basis for defining the spatial scope, implementing holistic protection and development strategies for the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal National Cultural Park, as well as promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural integration.

The Grand Canal is a cultural gem recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Grand Canal National Cultural Park is a significant cultural project in contemporary China. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (2022) emphasized the imperative of “constructing and effectively utilizing national cultural parks”. Research on the collaborative knowledge network of the Grand Canal plays a pivotal role in facilitating coordinated and efficient development of Grand Canal studies, thus providing crucial support for the construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park. This study employs collaborative research papers focused on the Grand Canal in China as foundational data to construct an urban knowledge collaboration network for Grand Canal research. Utilizing research methodologies such as social network analysis, maximum flow analysis, and negative binomial gravity models, the study explores the evolutionary characteristics and formation mechanisms of the urban knowledge collaboration network in the Grand Canal research. Furthermore, text analysis methods are introduced to examine the heterogeneity of collaborative content within the urban knowledge collaboration network of the Grand Canal research. The findings reveal the following: (1) The overall scale of the network continues to expand, albeit with a gradual decrease in network density, indicating a relatively sparse network structure. (2) The spatial pattern of the network demonstrates an overall tendency of transitioning from a single-core structure in the south to a dual-core structure in the north-south direction. (3) The formation and evolution of the network are influenced by the research scale attributes of the cities themselves, as well as multiple factors such as geography, culture, and institutions. (4) The collaborative content within the urban knowledge collaboration network of the Grand Canal research exhibits heterogeneity, effectively reflecting the network's characteristics and bearing geographical significance. This study's theoretical contribution lies in addressing the shortcomings of current research on knowledge networks concerning the Grand Canal, while augmenting the focus on collaborative content in existing urban knowledge network research.

Return migration is increasingly becoming an important socio-economic phenomenon affecting the national and regional development, and research into its influencing mechanism has received widespread attention. Based on individual and family socio-economic factors, this study incorporates regional contextual factors into the discussion of the mechanism for return migration, and reveals the push-pull mechanism of different regional contexts on the return migration intentions by constructing an analytical framework comprising the contextual factors related to origins and destinations and the individual attributes, and by using China Migrants Dynamic Survey and cross-classified multi-level model. The results show that the contextual factors related to origins and destinations were critical factors in explaining the return intentions, and and the place of destination is slightly more important than the place of origin. However, significant differences in the specific impact of contextual factors between the two places were observed. Improvements in the economic context and basic education in the place of origin, as well as the proximity to large cities, have significantly increased the intention of the migrant to return, while in the place of destination, the development of the local economy, the boom in the service sector and proximity to large cities significantly discouraged return intentions, however, the effect of basic education resources is not significant. Compared with the less-educated migrants, the return intention of the well-educated group is more significantly pulled by the economic level of their hometown and the location conditions close to large cities, and more significantly inhibited by the industrial structure and location conditions of the destination places. The study extends the research of migration in geography and provides useful reference for different regions to take targeted measures to guide the rational migration.

China is currently experiencing a dramatic increase in urbanization and the growth of its ageing population. Existing research on the wellbeing of older migrants has mostly focused on the effects of daily mobility in the host city. Less attention has been paid to the circulation between the host city and hometown. Given the increased prevalence of information, communication and travel technologies, diverse groups of migrants find themselves increasingly enmeshed in a translocal circulation of mobility both physically and virtually. Based on the perspective of circulation theory, the multi-locational life arrangements of the drifting elderly group are supported by multiscale mobility of daily mobility and return mobility. This paper examines the impact of both daily mobility and return mobility on the wellbeing of the drifting elderly, while exploring the moderating role of information communication and technology. Based on a household survey from the urban area of Nanjing, China in 2019, our quantitative study aims to answer the following research questions: (1) How do daily mobility and return mobility influence the wellbeing of the drifting elderly? (2) Is the moderating effect of information technology significant in the relationship between mobility and wellbeing. Our results indicate that both daily mobility and return mobility have positive effects on wellbeing. In the local context, daily mobility contributed more to eudaimonic wellbeing than to hedonic wellbeing, while return mobility was found to have a greater impact on hedonic wellbeing dimension. Specifically, the contribution of local mobility to wellbeing was mainly reflected in factors including neighborhood walkability, local activity participation and local social support. And the contribution of hometown mobility to wellbeing was mainly reflected in hometown travel, hometown social contact and hometown social support. Moreover, the moderating effect of the usage of the information and communication technology was significant in the relationship between return mobility and eudaimonic wellbeing of the migrant elderly. By so doing, our article generates a multi-scalar and dynamism perspective of the mobility and offers a better understanding of how mobility and wellbeing are connected in the situation of double presence among the drifting elderly. Relevant urban and transport policy implications are suggested to promote the mobility and wellbeing of the drifting elderly in urban China.

Structural upgrading and competitiveness of industries in urban agglomerations require a rational and orderly industrial spatial organization. This article examined the internal relationships and boundary dynamics of network communities in China's biomedical industry by constructing intercity networks based on the flow of capital, technology, and senior staff, and using the community exploration method. The article also identified the growth poles according to the network power to dissect their siphon and trickle-down effects and penetrate the spatial organization patterns of the biomedical industry at intra- and extra-urban agglomeration scales. The results show that (1) In the capital dimension, the investment in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (BTH) evolves along “decentralization → agglomeration → re-decentralization”; the investment in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRD) evolves along “decentralization → internal fragmentation → integration”; the investment in the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration (PRD) evolves along “fragmentation → high dependence→ de-dependence”. (2) In the technology dimension, the BTH initially forms a star-shaped topology with Beijing as the core, which subsequently creates an agglomeration shadow to neighboring cities, leading to a decrease in technology integration level in the later stage; the YRD shows technology integration in the early stage, internal division in the middle stage, and a reverse direction of integration in the later stage; the PRD's technology flow always presents a pattern of decentralization and internal division. (3) In the senior staff dimension, the three major urban agglomerations evolve towards integration, with the BTH lagging behind the YRD and the PRD. (4) For the spatial organization pattern, the BTH evolves along “single core → one core and one portal → one core and two portals”; the YRD evolves along a “centripetal → centrifugal → nested chain”; the PRD always presents “one core and two portals”.

To achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, it is necessary to analyze the low-carbon competitiveness of cities on a regional scale. In other words, it is important to recognize the spatio-temporal evolution patterns of the low-carbon development in various cities in regional scope. This paper aims to analyze the low-carbon competitiveness of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2000 to 2020. It first constructed the comprehensive index system for evaluating urban low-carbon competitiveness, consisting of three dimensions of carbon emissions, socio-economic correlation factors, low-carbon technologies and policies. It then analyzed the time-series evolution characteristics of urban low-carbon competitiveness in the study area based on the TOPSIS-grey relational analysis method, and identified the spatial evolution pattern of urban low-carbon competitiveness by employing LISA time path and space-time transition models. It finally divided the 41 cities into seven spatio-temporal evolution types. Results have shown that: (1) The urban low-carbon competitiveness in the YRD changed significantly within the 20 years, and nearly half of the cities showed fluctuating evolution with an upward trend, and the average level of low-carbon competitiveness is Shanghai > Zhejiang > Jiangsu > Anhui ; (2) The spatial correlation of the dimension of carbon emissions varied greatly among cities, while the spatial correlation of the dimension of socio-economic factors was relatively weak, and the spatio-temporal coordination of the dimension of low-carbon technologies and policies was becoming better. (3) The probability of none-transition between spatio-temporal types or the same transition direction in the cities is 81.1%, indicating that there was certain path dependence in the spatial pattern evolution of low-carbon competitiveness in the YRD. (4) Different spatio-temporal evolution types of low-carbon competitiveness in the YRD were identified, for instance, the low-level solidification type in the northern areas, the high-level synergy type in southern Anhui and Zhejiang, the high-level overflow type in the central areas such as Hangzhou and Ningbo, which drove the low-carbon development of surrounding areas, the high-level centrality type such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Hefei, which were regional centers yet not fully played a leading role. In general, there are certain coordination and transformation existing in the external and internal factors of the three dimensions of urban low-carbon competitiveness, which drive the overall evolution of low-carbon competitiveness in the YRD. This paper could shed light on policy-making of low carbon oriented regional integration.

The city is the basis of a better life, and the quality of the city is related to the well-being of the people. Urban quality is an important manifestation of urban development quality, regional aggregation and comprehensive competitiveness, which affects the change of urban housing prices and the improvement of innovation level. Under the background of the new development paradigm, clarifying the interaction between urban housing prices, innovation ability and urban quality, and exploring the path of high-quality urban development can not only meet the people's yearning for a better life, but also promote the healthy development of cities and regions. Taking the housing price, innovation ability and urban quality of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2009 to 2020 as the research object, this paper explores the development relationship among the three elements by using the bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis and panel vector autoregressive model. The results show that: (1) The urban housing price, innovation ability and urban quality all increased, while the urban housing price and urban quality increased by more than 100%, and the innovation ability increased by less than 30%. The three elements show a spatial pattern of 'high in the east and low in the west'. (2) The spatial correlation intensity of urban housing price-urban innovation and urban housing price-urban quality is increasing, while the spatial correlation intensity of urban innovation-urban quality is decreasing, and the local spatial correlation pattern of the three has strong stability and spatial locking characteristics. (3) Urban housing price, innovation ability and urban quality all have strong self-reinforcing characteristics, and the mutual impact of the three shows different trends, but the impact eventually tends to be stable. In the process of integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, urban housing price, innovation ability and urban quality interact and synergize each other, driving the region towards higher quality.

Promoting the development of rural industrial integration is an important measure to promote rural revitalization. Taking Shicha village of Haikou city as an example, this paper analyzes the process and mechanism of rural industrial integration based on the Actor Network Theory, providing a new research perspective for the industrial integration of the case village and similar villages. The results show that: (1) Rural industrial integration is a process of multi-stage, multi-subject participation and mutual game promotion. The industrial integration of Shicha village has gone through three stages of transformation and exploration, interest connection and multi-productive integration, and has gradually explored a development path of productive integration featuring Dendrobium industry as the leading industry. (2) In the process of industrial integration in Shicha village, with the change of interest intention of key actors such as Dendrobium Company, village committee and rural elite at different stages, the obligatory passage point (OPP) changed from “promoting rural development with characteristic industries” to “building a model village of rural revitalization with industrial integration”, and the correlation degree between villagers and actors was deepened, the role of the government, village committees and other actors was weakened, and the rural talented people and external capital gradually moved to the center of the network, and the actor network was reconstructed. (3) The attributes of non-human actors, the improvement of villagers' participation, the changes of key actors and their intentions, and the interest game among heterogeneous actors jointly drive the industrial integration of Shicha village. (4) Strengthening government policy guidance, transforming the mode of industrial development, consolidating the dominant position of villagers and optimizing the industrial operation mechanism are important ways to promote the integration of rural industries and stimulate the vitality of rural revitalization.

The special characteristics of the e-waste industry are reflected in the contradictory unity between the resource regeneration of recycling and the destructive nature of dismantling and pollution. Based on the path-dependency theory, the study investigates the evolution mechanism of the e-waste industry cluster in G town by focusing on the co-evolutionary relationship between the cluster and the government and taking the production of knowledge and the selection of new knowledge as the reference for classifying the evolutionary stages of the cluster. This study finds that at the beginning of the formation of the e-waste processing industry path in G town, enterprises strengthen their ties in the exploration and retention of new knowledge, forming a dismantling cluster with a complete industrial chain. Subsequently, when new knowledge re-emerged and required high iterative costs, firms stemming from profit-driven incentives to choose to adopt new knowledge were limited, exhibiting internal self-reinforcement. When clusters become locked in, rigid perceptions make it difficult for them to achieve path unlocking independently. The intervention of external administrative forces stimulates and accelerates the formation and development of new paths for clusters. This study enriches the existing empirical research on evolutionary economic geography in China and provides a certain research reference for the development of the e-waste industry.

Breakthrough innovations are technological inventions that have a significant impact on the subsequent technological evolution, industrial revolution and economic development, and they are the fundamental driving force to explore new domains and pathways for regional development. Evolutionary economic geography claims that technological relatedness plays an important role in regional innovation development, however, the existing research lacks the investigation of technological unrelatedness and non-technological factors. Based on the data of 7.72 million invention patents and local government policy planning texts, this paper constructs the indexes of relatedness density and unrelatedness density of 281 cities in China from 2000 to 2018, and explores the impact of technology relatedness and unrelatedness as well as industrial policy on regional breakthrough innovation. The research findings are as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2018, the main fields of breakthrough technologies in China evolved from traditional industrial sectors such as living materials and chemical industry to emerging industries such as computing, measurement, electrical components and electrical communication technology. The spatial dimension presents the evolution characteristics of “high in the east and low in the west, advancing in the south and retreating in the north”. (2) Technological relatedness and unrelatedness have differentiated impacts on the breakthrough technologies development. Technological relatedness plays a significant role in both breakthrough technologies entry and growth, while technological unrelatedness only has a positive effect on the entry of new technologies. (3) The effect of regional industrial policy is influenced by the technological relatedness of target industries. Although the industrial policy can create a new technological evolution path in the short term, it is difficult to promote the sustainable innovation growth of non-potential advantageous industries. As the relatedness of target industries to the regional technological base increases, the positive impact of industrial policy on the entry and sustainability of breakthrough technologies increases, and the above mechanism has a more significant effect on strategic emerging industries and regions with a high degree of marketization. The study suggests that local governments should create a favorable institutional environment to provide conditions conducive to stimulating the innovation-driven effects of technology relatedness, and industrial policies should support the formation of regional comparative advantages in sectors with a high density of technology relatedness, so as to promote the simultaneous development of “efficient market” and “promising government”.

In recent decades, a series of disaster events caused by climate change have been confirmed by instrumental measurements and experimental records around the world. To deeply explore the characteristics and mechanism of climate change at different spatio-temporal scales is the prerequisite to establish the coupling relationship between climate change and various disaster events. The discipline of geography is mainly concerned with the spatial distribution characteristics of different natural events and their evolutionary mechanisms and therefore has unique advantages in analyzing the spatial and temporal patterns of climate change and various disaster events and their coupling mechanisms. In this paper, we examine the current funding status of climate change-related research in the geographical science discipline of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) from 2010 to 2021, based on the application/funding data. The future development of climate change research from the perspective of geographical science is summarized and prospected. The results show that from 2010 to 2021, the number of applications/grants for youth science funds related to climate change of the geographic science increased year by year, indicating that the scale of talents in this discipline is constantly increasing. On the general program, the application and funding number of projects are relatively stable. Although the number of applications for regional science funds showed an increasing trend, the amount of funding fluctuated greatly. The six research institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences are the main research units of climate change-related research in the geographical science. The results show that there are still many problems in the research on climate change of the geographical science, such as uneven regional distribution of research teams, relatively homogeneous research methods and contents, insufficient investigation of mechanisms, and weak linkage between theory and practice. In view of the above problems, it is suggested to further enhance the level of regional research strength, consolidate the research on mechanisms, promote the integration of multiple disciplines, indicators and processes under the theme of climate change, and promote the relevant results to serve the actual production and life. This will provide the relevant basis for better and more adequate response to the human and social development problems brought about by climate change.

Based on the data of the fifth, sixth, and seventh population censuses at the county level and the prefecture level, this paper examines the spatial patterns and determinants of highly educated talent in China from 2000 to 2020. Specifically, it displays regional variation in the number of highly educated talented people using descriptive statistical analysis. It measures the spatial inequality in the stock of talent using the Theil index and its decomposition method. It identifies the influencing factors of talent density and the share of talent in the total population using multivariate linear regressions. Further, it conducts a heterogeneity analysis for both urban agglomeration areas and non-urban agglomeration areas. The results of our analyses are as follows: (1) The regional variation in talent density shows a stable pattern of "denser in the southeast and sparser in the northwest", with a core-edge pattern to the southeastern half of the Hu Huanyong Line, decreasing gradually from the core area of the national urban agglomerations to the periphery. (2) The share of talent in the total population shows a distinctive hierarchical pattern, with the central cities of the urban agglomerations and some resource-based cities having a relatively high talent share and the number of areas with a high talent share rapidly increasing. (3) From 2000 to 2020, the growth rate of talent density slowed down, while the growth rate of the share of talent increased, with different spatial patterns on both sides of the Hu Huanyong Line. (4) The overall regional variation in the talent density and talent share gradually decreased, and between-county within-agglomeration regional variation in talent share contribute the most to the total variation. (5) In terms of influencing factors, city administrative hierarchy, wage level, and the scale of talent cultivation are found to be important influencing factors of talent density and talent share. The influence of scientific research investment on talent density and talent share increases first and then falls. The level of public services and the level of regional greening exert a certain impact on talent density and talent share. The repelling effect of air pollution on talent turns out to be not obvious. (6) The impacts of city administrative hierarchy, the scale of talent cultivation, and ecological environment quality on talent density and talent share differ between urban agglomerations and non-urban agglomerations.

Evolutionary economic geography has highlighted the crucial role of technological renewal and evolution in regional economic development. In current evolutionary economic geography studies, much attention has been paid to the role of technological relatedness in the entry, survival, and exit of technologies. However, these studies usually analyze the entry, survival and exit of technologies separately and do not take the entry, survival and exit of technologies as a whole. In this study, we take the entry, survival and exit of technologies together and analyze the characteristics of regional technological transition in different regional economic stages using Chinese invention patent data from 1985 to 2015. The main findings are as follows. First, the regional technological transition process includes four primary stages: the initial stage, transition stage I, transition stage II, and innovation development stage. A high entry rate, a high exit rate, and a low survival rate of the technology are typical characteristics of the initial stage. In transition stage I, the technology entry rate remains high, whereas the exit rate begins to decline with a widening gap between them. In transition stage II, the technology entry rate starts to decrease and the exit rate decreases more slowly than in the previous stage. During this stage, the gap between entry and exit rates narrows. In the innovation development stage, technology entry and exit rates remain at a low level and are approximately equal. Second, regional technological diversity is shaped as a logistic curve during the four-stage transitional process. Third, this study also analyzes the driving factors that affect the regional technological transition process from four aspects: distance to international technological frontiers, the number of technologies that can be learned and imitated from developed countries, agglomeration economics, and degree of regional technological division. The distance to international technological frontiers and the number of technologies that can be learned and imitated from developed countries mainly impact the entry rate of new technologies, while agglomeration economics and the degree of regional technological division mainly influence the survival and exit rates of incumbent technologies. These four influencing factors change themselves in the development process of the regional economy and lead to different entry, survival and exit characteristics of technologies in different stages. This study has theoretical implications for later-development countries and regions to catch up and can provide suggestions for policymakers trying to promote regional technological development.

The perspective of relatedness plays a crucial role in representing cognitive regional economic development and industrial structure upgrading. In this paper, we aim to provide an overview of the existing research on industrial development from the perspective of relatedness, along with the intricate relationships between firm relatedness, industrial relatedness, and regional relatedness within the framework of relatedness formation. We have conducted an empirical study using Guangdong province as our primary example. This study involves the construction and calculation of firm relatedness, industrial relatedness, and regional relatedness based on enterprise data, input-output tables, the Hadoop Distributed File System, and Apache Spark, with a specific focus on 42 different industries. Our study delves into the dynamic changes in industrial development within Guangdong, and the key findings can be summarized as follows. Firstly, the network of relatedness among firms, industries, and regions in the province reveals that enterprises in information technology manufacturing and modern service industries are strongly interconnected. At the same time, traditional manufacturing industries such as chemical products and metal smelting and processing have consistently contributed to the overall regional industrial value flow over the past two decades. Emerging strategic industries and tertiary sectors have gradually gained prominence in the regional spatial configuration. Secondly, the dynamic evolution of industries in Guangdong can be categorized into distinct periods: a phase characterized by high-speed and extensive growth, followed by a period marked by industrial transfer growth, and ultimately, a "new normal" period of coordinated industrial growth in the new millennium, in line with traditional perspectives. Correlation analysis conducted at four critical time points (2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017) from the perspective of relatedness aligns well with the results obtained from the traditional perspective. This underscores the fact that Guangdong's industrial landscape has experienced a dual "path breakthrough" through independent enterprise development and regional industrial space reorganization. Since the year 2000, the industry has entered a stage characterized by "path dependence" and undergone refined development. Finally, this paper discusses implementation strategies for the optimal allocation of industrial collaborative development based on the relatedness theory perspectives of firms, industries, and regions.

As one of the manifestations of economic globalization, R&D globalization of multinational corporations (MNCs) has become an important way for innovation resources to flow in the world. Overseas R&D investment by MNCs is the main manifestation of R&D globalization. Meanwhile, overseas R&D greenfield investment can reduce the cost and risk brought by knowledge differences, while being able to transfer tacit knowledge more effectively and help promote knowledge sharing and technology integration in the internal network of MNCs, which is one of the better ways to invest in overseas R&D. This paper analyzes the temporal and spatial dynamics and influencing factors of MNCs' R&D globalization from 2003 to 2020 based on MNCs' overseas R&D greenfield investment data, with the help of GIS spatial method and statistical models. The main findings are as follows. (1) The overall growth trend of overseas R&D greenfield investment by MNCs from 2003 to 2020 is non-linear and unstable, and accompanied by cyclical fluctuations of the stage characteristics, forming two stages of gentle rise and drastic fluctuation changes. (2) MNCs' overseas R&D greenfield investments have always been dominated by manufacturing industries, with stable industry structure development, and have not shown obvious changing characteristics, but the country composition of overseas R&D greenfield investments in different industries varies significantly. (3) The spatial scope of overseas R&D greenfield investment by MNCs gradually spreads, and the spatial distribution of source countries basically locks in the "dual-core" pattern led by North America and Western Europe, while the spatial distribution of destination countries shows a triple pattern of India, China and North America. (4) Although still dominated by the "grand triangle" pattern formed by North America, EU and East Asia, the spatial linkage of overseas R&D greenfield investments by MNCs has gradually spread, tending to be complicated and networked, but has been promoted by the Asia-Pacific region with China and India as the core. The development trend of global multipolarity has emerged. (5) Economic scale, R&D resources, technology level and other attributes, as well as language, history and culture and economic proximity are the important driving forces of overseas R&D greenfield investment by MNCs, while the effect of geographical proximity is not obvious.

Urban space is profoundly influenced by globalization. The impact of globalization on urban space attracts lots from attention of scholars, as transnational space, which is a new type of urban space, has emerged. Transnational spaces are becoming important components of the cities in the global era. Much research pursues emphatically the formation process and driving forces of urban transnational space. However, recent studies seldom address the issue of spatial reconstruction as well as the governance mechanism of urban transnational space. In order to fit this gap, this paper develops a research framework to study the spatial reconstruction and governance mechanism of urban transnational space in Germany. This research framework is based on multiple perspectives by regarding the governance of transnational space as a multi-scalar process engaging with multi-actors. Further onwards, this paper analyses three cases in the city of Düsseldorf in Germany. The study cases are urban transnational spaces that are located in either the city centre or urban periphery area. By using qualitative and quantitative research methods, this paper explores the mechanism of spatial reconstruction and governance in these urban transnational spaces. In doing so, we find that: firstly, spatial reconstruction of transnational space is a spatial strategy of urban development, which is under the reorganization of urban governance. Secondly, the governance of transnational space involves the interaction of multiple actors within multi-level transnational networks, which is a crisscross mode of structure and action with global-local networked shape that crosses administrative boundaries. Thirdly, multi-level network is essential for transnational spatial reconstruction, when the network-like interactions of multiple actors are keys to the functioning of multi-level networks, and the linkage of multi-projects is the means to the practice of governance. Fourthly, the combination of formal planning tools and informal measures promotes the governance of transnational space, when informal planning tools and measures are found to be more flexible. Fifthly, the linkage of multi-projects not only facilitates the equilibrium development of the city, but also improves the quality of urban internationalization. Finally, this paper suggests that the research framework of transnational spatial reconstruction and governance can provide a better understanding of how deeply globalization influences urban space.

In this paper, six urban agglomerations are taken as examples, the comprehensive evaluation method is used to evaluate the level of urban and rural integration development, and the obstacle degree model and geographic detector are coupled to analyze the obstacle factors and driving factors. The results show that: (1) From 1995 to 2019, the level of urban-rural integration of the six urban agglomerations showed a steady upward trend, the gap gradually narrowed, and the level of the integration in the coastal urban agglomeration, provincial capitals, and core cities was relatively high. (2) There is little difference in urban-rural integration between cities within urban agglomerations, but there is a big difference between urban agglomerations, and there are obvious differences in different factors. (3) Spatial correlation analysis shows that the spatial agglomeration characteristics of urban-rural integration are enhanced, and regional linkage governance is strengthened. (4) The analysis of obstacle factors shows that capital and management are the main obstacle factors of urban-rural integration, the population obstacle degree remains stable, the land obstacle degree has a slight upward trend, and the technical obstacle degree has a continuous downward trend. (5) The analysis of driving factors shows that the level of economic development, openness to the outside world, and the infrastructure of urban and rural transportation facilities have been the dominant driving factors for the integrated development of urban and rural areas, and they have gradually changed from single to diversified. The research suggests that we should strengthen the identification and regulation of driving factors and obstacles in the future; increase the support of inclusive finance for rural areas, drive the integration of urban and rural areas through capital guidance; promote the deep integration of digital elements and rural areas, and give full play to the enabling role of the digital economy in the integrated development of regional urban and rural areas. On the one hand, we will strengthen the integration of digital elements and rural industries to promote the digital transformation of rural industries; relying on the internet platform, we can promote the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas. On the other hand, we will strengthen the integration of digital elements and rural governance, build cloud platforms such as "digital brains" in urban and rural areas, and comprehensively enhance the capacity of urban and rural collaborative governance, to promote urban and rural integration and high-quality development.

Urban sprawl is a low-density, discontinuous urban spatial development pattern that threatens the urban sustainable development seriously. In this paper, the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) was picked up as a case to elucidate the characteristics of urban sprawl. First, we identified the built-up area boundary of the YRB in the year nodes of 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 by using NPP-VIIRS-like nighttime light data. Then, we analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics of urban sprawl in the YRB from 2005 to 2020 by using constructed multi-dimensional urban sprawl indicator system and urban sprawl feature recognition model. Finally, we simulated the evolutionary trends of urban sprawl on the three scales of city, urban agglomeration and watershed from 2025 to 2040 by using urban sprawl scenario analysis model. The results indicate that from 2005 to 2020, the urban sprawl speed in density dimension and morphological dimension showed an increasing trend, while that in structure dimension, efficiency dimension and quality dimension showed a decreasing trend. Meanwhile, from 2005 to 2020, the efficiency of urban sprawl was dominated by fluctuating decreases and sustained decreases, followed by fluctuating increases and sustained increases. And regarding the developing balance, the Type I small cities, Type II small cities and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration in the YRB showed a decreasing trend, while that of the remaining types of cities showed an increasing trend. In addition, from 2005 to 2020, the pattern of urban sprawl in the YRB was dominated by edge sprawl. The number of leapfrog sprawl patterns was decreasing year by year, while the number of edge sprawl and infilling sprawl patterns was increasing year by year. Furthermore, the urban sprawl at different scales in the YRB will continue to grow during 2025-2040. The percentage of sprawling area of cities, Type II large cities, medium cities, Type I small cities, and Type II small cities in the upper Yangtze River Basin shows an increasing trend, and the percentage of sprawling area of the remaining types of cities shows a decreasing trend. Our findings may provide a scientific basis and reference for high-quality development and territorial spatial planning in the YRB.