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    Spatial Distribution and Tourism Activation of Traditional Villages in Yunnan Province
    XU Shaohui, DONG Liping
    Journal of Resources and Ecology    2022, 13 (5): 851-859.   DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2022.05.009
    Abstract323)   HTML90)    PDF (2284KB)(17656)      

    Using ArcGIS to analyze the spatial distribution of traditional villages in Yunnan Province in combination with the actual local conditions of traditional villages, the purpose of this study is to determine the development model suitable for their characteristics. The results show several important features of traditional village distribution. (1) The traditional villages in Yunnan Province have spatial structural characteristics of unbalanced cohesive distribution, and they are mainly distributed in the higher-level cities and prefectures such as northwest Yunnan, west Yunnan and south Yunnan. Among them, the traditional villages of Baoshan City have the highest distribution density of 66.33 per 10000 km2. This is followed by Dali Prefecture and Honghe Prefecture, where the densities of traditional villages are 44.13 per 10000 km2 and 37.66 per 10000 km2, respectively. (2) The factors affecting the spatial distribution structure of traditional villages in Yunnan Province are natural geographical factors, humanistic historical factors and transportation factors. Among them, the natural geographical conditions with a large vertical gap in Yunnan Province gave birth to the human settlement environment of traditional villages. The history of a farming civilization that has been passed down from generation to generation has laid a brilliant and splendid humanistic foundation for traditional villages, and the high-altitude areas are relatively primitive. The transportation conditions have delayed the destruction of traditional villages by urbanization and industrialization. In summary, these factors have affected the spatial distribution pattern of traditional villages in Yunnan Province to some extent. (3) According to the law of the spatial distribution of traditional villages in Yunnan Province, it is necessary to explore the activation path of traditional village tourism with regional characteristics and ethnic characteristics, and also to carry out differentiated development according to the different endowment characteristics of local resources, that is to develop a series of activation modes including agricultural tourism, cultural tourism and ecological tourism.

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    Spatio-temporal variations and influencing factors of energy-related carbon emissions for Xinjiang cities in China based on time-series nighttime light data
    ZHANG Li, LEI Jun, WANG Changjian, WANG Fei, GENG Zhifei, ZHOU Xiaoli
    Journal of Geographical Sciences    2022, 32 (10): 1886-1910.   DOI: 10.1007/s11442-022-2028-z
    Abstract213)   HTML27)    PDF (6062KB)(12803)      

    This essay combines the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) nighttime light data and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) nighttime light data into a “synthetic DMSP” dataset, from 1992 to 2020, to retrieve the spatio-temporal variations in energy-related carbon emissions in Xinjiang, China. Then, this paper analyzes several influencing factors for spatial differentiation of carbon emissions in Xinjiang with the application of geographical detector technique. Results reveal that (1) total carbon emissions continued to grow, while the growth rate slowed down in the past five years. (2) Large regional differences exist in total carbon emissions across various regions. Total carbon emissions of these regions in descending order are the northern slope of the Tianshan (Mountains) > the southern slope of the Tianshan > the three prefectures in southern Xinjiang > the northern part of Xinjiang. (3) Economic growth, population size, and energy consumption intensity are the most important factors of spatial differentiation of carbon emissions. The interaction between economic growth and population size as well as between economic growth and energy consumption intensity also enhances the explanatory power of carbon emissions’ spatial differentiation. This paper aims to help formulate differentiated carbon reduction targets and strategies for cities in different economic development stages and those with different carbon intensities so as to achieve the carbon peak goals in different steps.

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    Characteristics and development process of spoon-shaped gully in the Loess Plateau
    YANG Xin, TANG Guoan, YUAN Baoyin, LIU Hailong, HUANG Xiaoli, LI Chenrui
    GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH    2021, 40 (7): 1870-1886.   DOI: 10.11821/dlyj020200727
    Abstract16375)   HTML660)    PDF (9351KB)(7420)      

    Gully is characterized by the frequent material exchanges and strong morphological changes in the Loess Plateau. Under the combined action of internal and external forces, various kinds of gullies in different development stages have shaped the unique geomorphologic landscape in the Loess Plateau. And a special loess gully, namely, the spoon-shaped gully is widely distributed in this plateau. At present, there is limited research on its formation, development process, mechanism, and spatial distribution characteristics. Using high-resolution remote sensing images and DEM data, and based on the sufficient field investigation and expert knowledge, this paper put forward the concept of loess spoon-shaped gully, and pointed out that the loess spoon-shaped gully is a kind of permanent discontinuous gully independently developed on the loess slope. Then, the characteristics of loess spoon-shaped gully were analyzed from the aspects of gully shape, confluence relationship, erosion process, and distribution characteristics, which were different from other existing gullies. Furthermore, the loess spoon-shaped gully was classified from the perspectives of development morphology, development scale and development location. Based on the space-for-time substitution theory, the morphological evolution characteristics of the spoon-shaped gully were analyzed quantitatively, and the development process of loess spoon-shaped gully was further discussed. It was proved that loess spoon-shaped gully was the initial stage of loess bank gully. Finally, on the basis of systematical summary on the characteristics of spoon-shaped gullies, the development process of spoon-shaped gullies was deduced, and it was pointed out that the formation of spoon-shaped gullies was closely related to the formation and development of loess sinkholes and dark caves. The further development was accompanied by the process of hydraulic erosion and gravity erosion. The reason for the shrinkage or the disappearence of the tail of the spoon-shaped gully can be attribute to the underground caves, loess permeability, rainfall conditions and surface cover. The results of this paper are expected to contribute to the further understanding of the landform development, erosion process and mechanism of the loess gully, and to provide references for soil and water conservation in the Loess Plateau.

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    The Progress of Child Trafficking Studies in China and Abroad since 2000: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace
    Junjun Zhou, Gang Li, Dandan Hong, Feng Xu, Jiahui Xu, Yue Yu, Xiliang Chen
    Tropical Geography    2022, 42 (9): 1430-1442.   DOI: 10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.003542
    Abstract294)   HTML5)    PDF (1580KB)(4425)      

    As a crime that threatens public safety and social stability, child trafficking has attracted widespread attention from all sectors of society. Few studies have been conducted on child trafficking, especially in the literature review conducted from the perspective of comparison between China and abroad, which makes it difficult to fully reveal the system and development of current research. This study clarifies the thematic structure and development of child trafficking in China and abroad, based on the "Web of ScienceTM Core Collection" and CNKI data sources, using CiteSpace software. Specifically, the study comparatively examines the progress of child trafficking studies in China and abroad since 2000 and analyzes future development trends from the time of publication, regional and subject distribution, research institutions, and keyword co-occurrence. We hope that this work provides a relatively complete and objective understanding for innovative future research. The results indicate that: (1) the research on child trafficking started earlier abroad, and the theoretical system and research methods are relatively mature. From 2000 to 2020, a total of 215 articles were published in Web of Science, showing two stages of fluctuating and rapid growth, and USA ranks first worldwide. There are 46 core articles published in CNKI, showing two stages of initial exploration and fluctuating growth overall, with a relatively slow growth rate in China. More studies are distributed in the fields of social studies, psychology, pediatrics, family studies and criminology in abroad, while domestic studies are mainly distributed in the field of law, criminology and sociology. In recent years, the research in the field of geography has risen rapidly, and there is ample room for development. (2) Due to the differences in regional environment and national conditions, international child trafficking is part of a study on human trafficking, which is mainly for the purpose of exploitation, including direct and indirect exploitation, involving various topics such as commercial sexual exploitation, labor exploitation, trafficking human organs, child marriage trafficking, and other types of trafficking. Commercial trafficking and sexual exploitation are the main research hotspots of child trafficking. Child trafficking in China is usually discussed in combination with the trafficking of women, focusing on the provincial trafficking for the purpose of adoption, and "family control" and "lured adoption" are common ways of committing crimes. The legal policy and social reasons surrounding child trafficking are hot topics of concern. (3) With the increase in interdisciplinary integration, child trafficking involves suicide risk and well-being, rehabilitation and return to society, child protection and trafficking prevention and control measures, which have become popular topics abroad. The theme of domestic child trafficking has extended from focusing on legal policies and social reasons to spatial-temporal patterns, influencing factors, resettlement, and social integration. In the future, how to integrate the relevant parties involved in child trafficking (criminals, victims or guardians, and other people) with the spatio-temporal environment (social environment, built environment, and surrounding people flow environment), and explore the evolution of geographical factors and the spatio-temporal activity trajectory of child trafficking from the perspective of criminal geography? It is important to deeply analyze the occurrence mechanism of child trafficking from the interactive perspective of time, space, and humans. How to make full use of the modern technological means to track and combat child trafficking in practice, to contribute to the prevention and management of this issue at home and abroad, constitutes a key question.

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    Spatio-temporal differentiation and influencing factors of China's urbanization from 2010 to 2020
    LI Ruzi, HUANG Xiaoling, LIU Yaobin
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (4): 777-791.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202304001
    Abstract3584)   HTML899)    PDF (4458KB)(2583)      

    As China's urbanization has entered the middle and later stage and the improvement of well-being of residents has become a core goal, the transformation from "top-down" system goals optimization on the supply side to "bottom-up" multi-dimensional goals coordination on the demand side has become a new perspective to understand the connotation of urbanization. Based on the perspective of the human living conditions, the humanities environment, and human-city relationship, this paper constructs a connotation framework and index system of urbanization. Furthermore, Theil index is employed to analyze the spatio-temporal differentiation characteristics of China's urbanization before and after the implementation of the new-type urbanization strategy. Finally, in terms of both direct and indirect effect mechanisms, the mechanism framework of urbanization differentiation is constructed, and its evolution pattern is revealed by using Variance Decomposition and Geodetector. The results show that: since the implementation of the new-type urbanization strategy in 2014, China's urbanization has made remarkable achievements, with a steady improvement in human living conditions and human-city relationship, and there is still much room for improvement in the humanities environment. The high-level areas of urbanization are mainly distributed in coastal areas, and expanding to inland areas along the Yangtze River Basin and Yellow River Basin. The regional differences of urbanization gradually decrease, but the contribution rate of inner-regional differences shows an expanding trend. Differences in human living conditions and human-city relationship are the main factors of urbanization differentiation, but the contribution of differences in humanities environment is gradually expanding after 2014. Opening up and scientific & technological innovation are the main influencing factors of the difference in human living conditions. With the implementation of the new-type urbanization strategy, the impact on differences in humanities environment of the government finance gradually diminishes. Resource endowments have a relatively strong influence on differences in human-city relationship. This study can provide theoretical and empirical support for promoting the development of urbanization in China.

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    Disciplinary structure of geographic science in China
    CHEN Fahu, LI Xin, WU Shaohong, FAN Jie, XIONG Juhua, ZHANG Guoyou
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (9): 2069-2073.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202109001
    Abstract4452)   HTML1101)    PDF (727KB)(2021)      

    The modern international and domestic science advancements have brought forward new opportunities as well as higher requirements to the development of geographic science in China. In planning the disciplinary structure of geographic science in the "Development Strategy of Discipline and Frontier Research in China (2021-2035)", we propose a modified disciplinary structure for the geographic science in the new era. The geographic science in China can be categorized into four secondary disciplines, i.e., integrated geography, physical geography, human geography, and information geography, considering the current situation and development outlook of geographic science. The tertiary disciplines under each secondary discipline are nearly fully developed, and a few quaternary disciplines under tertiary disciplines have already been widely accepted and used. We hope this new disciplinary structure can play a breakthrough role for improving the branches of geographic science, promoting the development of emerging disciplines under the framework of geographic science, and better serving the international and domestic development needs in the new era.

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    Changes of the physical and human geographical environment in China during the past 2000 years
    GE Quansheng, ZHU Huiyi
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (1): 3-14.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202101001
    Abstract3535)   HTML278)    PDF (1859KB)(1981)      

    Understanding the changes of physical and human geographical environment during the past 2000 years in China is beneficial to establish the position, direction, focus areas, and initiatives of "Beautiful China" construction. In this paper, we integrated the results published in research papers, summarized the general characteristics of geographical environment changes in the history, and explored the implications of these changes on the construction of ecological civilization. The results implied that historical changes in China's land surface had been mainly manifested by the multi-scale quasi-periodic fluctuations and regional differentiation of climate, the fragmentation of the Loess Plateau, the expansion of desertified land in the northern regions, the gradual migration of delta coasts, the large scale shrinkage of lake systems especially in the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basins, and the decline in area of forests and the grasslands of northern China. Meanwhile, the economic and social changes were prominently reflected in the population growth and pattern changes, the migration of economic center to the southeast, the expansion of cultivated land to the periphery, and the transportation network evolution. From the above results, we could achieve the following enlightenments: in the future, the deserts in the northern region would still exist, and the lake systems in the middle and lower reaches of both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River were difficult to restore. The grain transportation from the south to the north disappeared in the history. But there was still much room for improvement in the coverage rate of forests, the transportation network could still achieve a higher level, and at the same time, we must mitigate the risk from climate change in the coastal cities.

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    The extent and spatial distribution of terrace abandonment in China
    DONG Shijie, XIN Liangjie, LI Shengfa, XIE Hualin, ZHAO Yuluan, WANG Xue, LI Xiubin, SONG Hengfei, LU Yahan
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (1): 3-15.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202301001
    Abstract2939)   HTML496)    PDF (2847KB)(1883)      

    With urbanization and industrialization, cultivated land in hilly regions of China has been gradually marginalized. Abandoned cultivated lands have ranged from inferior sloping land and extended to high-quality terraces. The abandonment of terraces will lead to a series of social and ecological problems, especially with large-scale abandonment. Therefore, the degree and spatial distribution of terrace abandonment should be evaluated scientifically to address the issue of abandonment as well as its effects. This study investigated the extent of terrace abandonment in China via a questionnaire sampling method. Based on 560 village questionnaires from 329 counties in China, the scale of terrace abandonment was calculated and the spatial heterogeneity characteristics and primary reasons for terrace abandonment were further analyzed. Study results showed that: (1) The phenomenon of terrace abandonment was observed throughout China, occurring in 54% of all the villages investigated; 9.79% of the total terraced areas have been abandoned. (2) The degree of terrace abandonment showed a spatial pattern of "high in the south and low in the north". The degree of terrace abandonment was higher in the southern hilly mountains, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River was the most serious. (3) The primary factors related to terrace abandonment were found to be labor migration, the degree to which terraces have been mechanized, irrigation conditions, and farming traffic conditions. Measures that include improving the degree of terrace mechanization should be enacted to address the problem of terrace abandonment. An orderly "conversion of cropland" could be applied to poor-quality terraces. Changing the planting structure, strengthening new agricultural infrastructure, and encouraging circulation and large-scale operations are options that could be applied to good-quality terraces.

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    On spatial effects in geographical analysis
    LIU Yu, WANG Keli, XING Xiaoyue, GUO Hao, ZHANG Weiyu, LUO Qinyao, GAO Song, HUANG Zhou, LI Haifeng, LI Xin, WANG Jiaoe, WANG Jinfeng, ZHU Di
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (3): 517-531.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202303001
    Abstract2710)   HTML436)    PDF (1266KB)(1820)      

    GIScience inherits the spatial analysis tradition of geography. Given that "spatial is special", GIScience needs to highlight spatial effects when constructing methods for geographical analysis. The research presents an explicit definition of spatial effect. By formalizing core GIScience concepts including space, location, field, distance, and region, we identify four types of spatial effects, namely spatial heterogeneity effect, neighbor effect in spatial dependence, distance decay effect in spatial interactions, and scale effect in spatial zoning. A unified framework is constructed to cover the four spatial effects based on the inherent linkages among them. We argue that spatial heterogeneity effect is the most fundamental one. While spatial dependence and spatial interaction are two basic geographical processes that represent the second-order relationships between two locations, neighbor effect and distance decay effect reflect the impacts of space. Scale effect is raised when aggregating attributes using regional units. Hence, the four types of effects form a hierarchical system. From a methodological perspective, this paper summaries related GIScience tools that implement different effects, and emphasizes the value of geospatial artificial intelligence for revealing and quantifying spatial effects.

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    Application basis and future perspectives of phenology in the theory and practice of tourism geography
    DAI Junhu, GAO Xinyue, LIU Haolong, TAO Zexing, MA Xiang, CAO Lijuan
    ECOTOURISM    2021, 11 (2): 161-175.   DOI: 10.12342/zgstly.20210041
    Abstract535)   HTML33)    PDF (2521KB)(1724)      

    Tourism geography, which emerged during the great development of applied geography in the 1980s, cannot now sufficiently support the rapid development of tourist industry due to its short period of development and insufficient theoretical and methodological systems. Therefore, the development of tourist industry urgently needs the knowledge of related more developed disciplines. Phenology is a branch of geography that has an intersection with tourism geography, and it has a very close relationship with tourist industry. The paper systematically reviews the role of phenology in supporting the tourism system, its applications in five specific industrial fields, the role in promoting six dimensions of the high-quality development of tourism, and the influence of climate change on phenological tourism resources and related industries. The analysis shows that: (1) The concept of phenology can help to integrate the tourism resources of natural, human, and social elements in the tourism system. The application of phenology in the tourism industry can effectively improve the service support sub-systems, transportation sub-systems, and medical and health sub-system. (2) The practical application of phenology in the tourist industry mainly involves plant landscape design, determination of ornamental tourism season, ornamental phenology forecasting, time planning for eco-tourism activities, pollen concentration forecasting, ice and snow disaster warning, and tourist route design. (3) Phenology supports six dimensions of high-quality development of tourism, including element, industry, process, time and space, direction, and participating sector. (4) Phenological tourism resources and related industrial links are sensitive to climate change. In the future, studies should focus on the risks of climate change in different climate scenarios and in-depth analysis of the influences on the perceptions and behavior of tourists. Phenological change should be integrated into medium and long-term industrial development plans and industry reports. From the perspectives of disciplinary development and industrial application, phenology can provide theoretical basis for tourism research, as well as practical guidance for the sustainable development of tourism in the context of climate change.

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    Discussion on the impact of COVID-19 on China's tourism industry and its responses
    TANG Chengcai, ZHANG Honglei, ZHAO Lei, YANG Yuanyuan, WEI Ge
    ECOTOURISM    2022, 12 (1): 169-183.   DOI: 10.12342/zgstly.20220011
    Abstract11288)   HTML386)    PDF (5059KB)(1693)      

    The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has brought enormous impacts and challenges to global tourism. How to cope with the pandemic has become the focus of attention. This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism of China from the aspects of residents' travel willingness, tourist site space capacity, operation of tourism market entities, and tourism policy supply. The research results show that: (1) The pandemic has greatly impacted residents' consumer confidence, willingness, and ability to travel, but the potential travel demand still exists. (2) The pandemic has caused great physical and psychological compression to the tourism space environment. The production space capacity of the cultural industry and the entertainment industry, which are closely related to tourism, has also been indirectly affected. (3) The pandemic has had a comprehensive and far-reaching impact on the tourism industry chain and the operation of tourism market entities. (4) Under the normalization of pandemic prevention and control, the tourism policy has mainly been based on "flow control" and "industry rescue". Eventually, based on the response system, spatial response mechanism, and the resilience of tourism enterprises, the responses of China's tourism industry to the pandemic are explored. First, the trinity response system of tourism to resist the pandemic should be constructed from the three dimensions of hierarchical government support, management department drive, and industry organization coordination. Second, the spatial response mechanism of the tourism system based on the three-level collaborative destination (point) - link (line) - network structure (network) under the normalization of pandemic prevention and control is proposed. Third, the countermeasures to enhance the resilience of tourism enterprises are put forward from five aspects: enterprise organization, product service, management and the marketing, and market brand and employee psychology.

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    Pattern evolution and optimal paths of county urbanization in China
    LIU Yansui, YANG Ren, LIN Yuancheng
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2022, 77 (12): 2937-2953.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202212001
    Abstract2989)   HTML447)    PDF (5350KB)(1580)      

    The orderly development of county urbanization, as an effective driving force for the integrated development of urban and rural areas in the new era, promotes the interaction and flow of elements between urban and rural territorial system, the optimization and adjustment of industrial structures, the optimal allocation of resources and markets, and the organic integration of urban and rural territorial system. The results show that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the county urbanization in China developed rapidly, and the regional differences in spatial and temporal dynamics were significant. The county urbanization rate in the eastern coastal, central suburbs and northern border areas was high, while it is low in southwest China, rural areas of the central region and most parts of Tibet and Xinjiang. In 2020, to the east of the Hu Huanyong Line, the northeastern region, northern Hebei, Shanxi-Shaanxi-Henan region, eastern Sichuan, and Yunnan-Guizhou region became high-value areas for urbanization rates at the county level. There are 716 counties with urbanization rates exceeding 50%, including the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Chengdu-Chongqing region, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the border areas of Inner Mongolia, and the southeastern coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, accounting for 38.3% of the country's total. (2) The county urbanization in China is the result of the combined effects of factors such as population, economy, society, and culture. The level of economic development, natural environment conditions, infrastructure construction, geographic locations, public resource supply, professional entrepreneurial clusters, and macro policies affect the direction, scope and depth of county urbanization. It is predicted that by 2035, the urbanization rate of China will reach about 76.04%, and that of counties will be about 64.38%. In the future, we should strengthen the adjustment and optimization of county population, economy, society and spatial organizational structure. (3) There are five types of county urbanization in China, including factor agglomeration urbanization in counties around big cities, industrial agglomeration-driven urbanization in counties with specialized function, agricultural modernization-led urbanization in counties with main agricultural production areas, ecological conservation urbanization in counties with ecological function areas, and concentrated urbanization in counties with population loss. (4) County urbanization takes county and key towns as important spatial carriers for the agglomeration of urbanization elements, and forms a multi-level system of residence-industry and industry-city coordination. The rational spatial distribution of factors such as the development of industrial integration and population resources will further promote the interactive flow of urban and rural elements, the integration of urban and rural industries, the equalization of urban and rural residents, and the equalization of urban and rural infrastructure, and enhance urban-rural integration and network development.

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    Research on misuses and modification of coupling coordination degree model in China
    WANG Shu-jia, KONG Wei, REN Liang, ZHI Dan-dan, DAI Bin-ting
    JOURNAL OF NATURAL RESOURCES    2021, 36 (3): 793-810.   DOI: 10.31497/zrzyxb.20210319
    Abstract8801)   HTML241)    PDF (1280KB)(1541)      

    With the deepening understanding of the Scientific Outlook on Development, the coupling coordination degree model has become an effective evaluation and research tool for the regional overall balanced development. However, for this model, there are four types of misuses, including writing errors, coefficients loss, weight misuses and model failures, which have significantly affected the scientific nature of academic research. Therefore, this study firstly clarified the normative formula of the traditional coupling coordination degree model. On the basis of discussing the validity of the traditional model in the field of social science research, this study further proposed a modified model of coupling degree. In addition, the coupling coordination degree model has three reliability issues: the subjectivity of index construction, and the volatility and incomparability of coupling results. Taking the ecological and economic system of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as an example, we proved that the modified coupling coordination degree model has better validity, and the spatial and temporal changes of the research object will affect the reliability of the coupled coordination model.

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    Basic Principles of Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) Accounting
    ZHANG Linbo, HAO Chaozhi, SONG Yang, WANG Yiyao, ZHANG Wentao, HUANG Yuhua, LIANG Tian
    Journal of Resources and Ecology    2022, 13 (3): 501-510.   DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2022.03.014
    Abstract301)   HTML14)    PDF (426KB)(1537)      

    Gross ecosystem product (GEP) is the gross value of all ecosystem products and services provided by ecosystems for human society. In practice, GEP measures the ecosystems' contributions to human well-being and constitutes one of the core issues in the construction of ecological civilization systems. Currently, GEP accounting faces a series of problems, such as the inconsistency of accounting subjects and a lack of accounting standards, the result of which is the non-reproducibility and weak applicability of accounting results. In this paper, mainstream models for ecosystem service valuation are summarized in a systematic manner. On this basis, eight basic principles are established for screening accounting indicators: biological productivity, human benefits, production territoriality, current increment, actual effectiveness, physical metrizability, data availability, and harmlessness. Next, a series of ecosystem service subjects are identified that need to be excluded from accounting, and the detailed reasons for their exclusion are presented. Finally, three ideas for improving GEP accounting are offered from the perspectives of the relationship between biological production and human production, the circulation-transport relationship and spatial differences, and harms to the ecosystem carrying capacity. The purpose is to provide positive considerations aimed at promoting the socio-economic applications of accounting and to contribute to the scientific quantification of the values of ecological products.

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    Comparative Study on the Governance Framework of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: From the Perspective of Institutional Environment
    Chengpeng Wu, Xianchun Zhang, Yingjie Hu
    Tropical Geography    2022, 42 (2): 256-268.   DOI: 10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.003446
    Abstract1513)   HTML67)    PDF (2787KB)(1483)      

    As the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has become a national strategy, bay area governance has become an important issue of academic attention. Existing studies pay more attention to specific governance measures and current situation, and there are few studies on the environmental causes behind them. In addition, most of the existing studies focus on the governance of the Greater Bay Area from a single perspective of politics, law, economy, culture and society, and lack of a more comprehensive institutional environment perspective to summarize the theoretical explanation of the political, legal and participant issues that are particularly prominent in the governance of the Greater Bay Area. Therefore, studying the construction of a comparative analysis framework around the institutional environment is aimed to examine the internal causes of the governance characteristics of the Greater Bay Area, enrich the research perspective of domestic regional governance, and provide suggestions for the governance of the Greater Bay Area. This paper constructs a comparative research framework of bay area governance institutional environment, including three dimensions of power structure, legal structure and social capital structure. Using the text/desktop analysis method, it systematically summarizes the governance frameworks of the Greater Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area and Tokyo Bay Area, and comparatively analyzes the governance institutional environment of the three bay areas. The study holds that the mode characteristics and effects of bay area governance are closely related to the institutional environment composed of power structure, legal structure and social capital structure. The power structure affects the flexibility of governance, and the power structure of the Greater Bay Area is asymmetric and fragmented, which is relatively closed and centralized, resulting in a single governance model always dominated by the government; the legal structure affects the transaction cost of governance, and the Greater Bay Area has not yet formed a unified and efficient legal system structure, resulting in higher transaction cost in the governance process; and the social capital structure affects the multiple participation in governance and the cohesion of the bay area, and in the Greater Bay Area, the positive social capital is relatively weak, the multiple participation in governance is insufficient and the bottom-up cohesion is not strong. Finally, it is suggested that the governance of the Greater Bay Area should start from the power, law and social capital structure, and explore the flexible reconstruction of the institutional space under the respective advantages of the three regions; in the construction of institutional environment, non-governmental subjects should be guided to participate in governance stably and orderly, so as to enhance the cohesion of the Greater Bay Area; and on the basis of ensuring the authoritative policies of the central and provincial governments, it should explore the decentralization and autonomy of local governments in the Greater Bay Area in due course. This paper constructs an institutional environment including power structure, legal structure and social capital structure, and comparatively analyzed the governance characteristics of the three bay areas under different institutional environments. From a more comprehensive perspective of environmental internal factors, it makes a theoretical explanation of the particularly prominent issues of politics, legal system and participants in the governance of the Greater Bay Area, which enriches the research perspective of regional governance in China.

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    The process of rural development and paths for rural revitalization in China
    GUO Yuanzhi, LIU Yansui
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (6): 1408-1421.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202106007
    Abstract2907)   HTML220)    PDF (2748KB)(1408)      

    China is a large agricultural country, and issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers are closely related to national economic and social development. To achieve the "Two Centenary Goals", rural revitalization strategy has become the choice to resolve unbalanced urban-rural development and inadequate rural development in China. Rural development is a comprehensive process of cycle accumulation and dynamic evolution of rural regional system. Thus, it is of great significance to systematically analyze the process and regional pattern of rural development to scientifically promote the implementation of rural revitalization strategy in the new era. Based on the theory of human-earth areal system and human-earth system science, this study examines the process and features of rural development in China from 1978 to 2050, discusses the internal relationship between rural transformation and rural revitalization, reveals the spatial pattern of the level of county rural revitalization in 2017, and finally puts forward the key problems and countermeasures for rural revitalization in the new era. Results show that the evolution of China's rural development in the period of 1978-2050 can be divided into three stages, i.e. solving the problem of food and clothing (1978-2005), building a well-off society (2005-2020) and realizing prosperity (2020-2050). In general, it is a dynamic and continuous process from low-level and basic-type to high-quality and innovation-type. Rural revitalization is a special stage of rural transformation, and a strategic choice to solve the prominent problem in rural development when it has evolved to a certain stage, thus boosting rural development to a higher stage. In 2017, when rural revitalization strategy was initiated, the level of rural revitalization in 57.3% of the counties in China was between 0.40 and 0.50, and there was an obvious gradient differentiation from the east to the west, with significant clustering characteristics and positive correlation. Specifically, the counties featured by "high-high (H-H)" clustering were mainly distributed in the third step of the terrain and the middle of Sichuan Basin; while the counties featured by "low-low (L-L)" clustering were concentrated in western China except Sichuan Basin, the eastern part of Inner Mongolia and the north of Tianshan Mountains. Due to the regionalism, stage and the difference in constraints of rural development, the focuses of rural revitalization in the new era lie in scientifically identifying the targeting areas of rural revitalization, comprehensively judging the trends of rural development, and systematically diagnosing the dominant constraints of different types of rural areas, so as to take targeted measures to make up for the shortcomings of the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Besides, it is necessary to fully understand the interactions between urban and rural areas, thus promoting urban-rural integrated development.

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    Spatial evolution of new infrastructure and its determinants: A case study of big data centers
    WANG Jiaoe, DU Fangye, XIAO Fan
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (2): 259-272.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202302001
    Abstract1962)   HTML456)    PDF (2376KB)(1387)      

    Data center is a new infrastructure system based on new development concepts, technological innovation, and information networks. It provides services for digital transformation, smart upgrading, and integrated innovation to meet the needs of high-quality development. The new infrastructure covers the construction of 5G base stations, intercity high-speed rail, intercity rail transit, new energy vehicle charging piles, big data centers, artificial intelligence, and industrial internet. It could promote resource integration, nurture new growth points, and shape new locations. Analyzing the spatial patterns of new infrastructures and their influencing factors is of great significance for understanding the regional development advantages. Using the data center as an example, this paper explores the spatial distribution and determinants of new infrastructure. Since the data center is not only infrastructure but also a strategic emerging industry, it is different from traditional infrastructure in terms of technical requirements and energy consumption. Since this difference will be reflected in the spatial layout, this paper proposes the macro layout principle of the data center. Then, the evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the spatial pattern of data centers in China are analyzed, and the following conclusions are drawn: (1) The macroscopic distribution of data centers should follow four principles: demand-oriented, cost oriented, operating environment-oriented, and safety oriented. (2) The distribution of data centers presents a spatial structure centered on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration. (3) Economic development, internet development, the number of high-tech enterprises, labor costs, and educational institutions have a positive impact on the macro layout of data centers. The impacts of location conditions, land costs, and layout policies of data centers on their macro layout begin to appear at a certain stage. (4) There are three types of data center distribution models in China: demand-orientated, cost-oriented, and demand-cost-operating environment-oriented. At present, the data center in China is demand-oriented and will develop into a comprehensive demand-cost-operating environment-oriented model in the future. Our conclusion could provide guidance and suggestions for scientific site selection and the optimal layout of data centers.

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    Spatiotemporal patterns and influencing factors of rainstorm-induced flood disasters in China
    HU Pan, CHEN Bo, SHI Peijun
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (5): 1148-1162.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202105008
    Abstract2361)   HTML263)    PDF (10412KB)(1350)      

    Understanding the influencing factors and controls of rainstorm-induced floods, which have caused tremendous losses of human lives and national economy, is a pressing need for flood risk management in China. Based on the meteorological disaster census data of counties in China, hourly precipitation data at 2420 stations, statistical yearbook, terrain data and other data, the authors (1) investigated the spatiotemporal pattern of flood impacts in China over the period from 1984 to 2007 using trend analysis techniques and (2) explored the driving factors of the spatiotemporal pattern by adopting the geospatial statistical analysis tool (Geodetector). This study considered the spatiotemporal patterns and their interplays among county-level flood impacts (i.e., flood-induced mortality rate, proportion of population affected, and economic loss in percentage), disaster-formative environmental factors (i.e., population density, urban population percentages, average elevation, river density, average slope, and average distance to the seashore), and extreme precipitation characteristics (i.e., annual average volume and duration of extreme rainfall). The results show that: (1) there were no consistent temporal trends of extreme rainfall characteristics over the study period across China. (2) The frequencies of flood disasters in the Yangtze and Pearl rivers and southeast coastal areas increased significantly, but the casualties over these regions decreased. (3) Flood-induced casualties, proportion of population affected and economic loss in percentage increased in Northwest China; and meteorological factors, disaster-formative environment factors such as geographical conditions and social economy, and geographical conditions contribute mostly to the proportion of population affected, flood-induced death and economic loss in percentage. These results indicate that more attention should be paid to improving the flood control capacity of small or medium-sized cities in the inland river basins, especially in Northwest China, and we should recognize the important roles that disaster-formative environment plays in triggering flood losses.

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    Human geography research based on the new thinking of global rural-urban relationship
    LIU Yansui, LONG Hualou, LI Yurui
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (12): 2869-2884.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202112001
    Abstract2605)   HTML422)    PDF (2728KB)(1339)      

    Sustainable rural development is critical to the achievement of global sustainable development goals. Globalization and urbanization, as the key processes, continuously drive the human-earth system to make adaptive responses, promoting the transformation of urban-rural relations. The rural-urban relationship is essentially a mother-child relationship, which is a comprehensive characterization of the transfer of rural humanistic factors, the transformation of man-land relationship and the transformation of urban-rural development in the process of urbanization. However, the traditional cognition of urban-rural relationship ignores the multi-dimensional connections between the rural and the urban as well as the existence of the rural-urban integration system, resulting in prominent drawbacks of rural regions, negatively affecting the urban-rural development rights, and resulting in urban and rural territorial dysfunction and other problems. The key to solve the problems of socio-economic development in China is to reform the urban-biased development strategy, and to innovate the new cognition of rural-urban relationship based on the thinking of "rural maternal effect", which highlights that rural areas nourish the city. Based on the remote coupling and systematic synthesis of the rural human-earth system, modern human geography urgently needs to strengthen the cross-research with physical geography and information geography, create a coordinated observation system of human-earth system supported by the sky-space-ground integration, reshape the global rural development perspective, rural-urban system perspective, and reorganize the global rural human-earth relationship, the rural-urban integration relationship, and the living and employment relationship. Rural human-earth relationship territorial system is the core of rural geography research. The rural human-earth system research should focus on the coupling of rural natural ecosystem and the socio-economic system and their complex interactive processes and effects. Supported by the intersection of multiple disciplines, the expansion of new fields and the cultivation of new disciplines, it should create the collaborative observation technology of human-earth system and methodology of multi-source data fusion computing, the research idea based on process-mechanism-pattern and the technical path of monitoring-simulation-decision support, and explore the organic connection path between rural human-earth system coupling and rural-urban integrated development, regional sustainable development and global common governance.

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    Spatial evolution characteristics and driving forces of Chinese highly educated talents
    GU Hengyu, SHEN Tiyan
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (2): 326-340.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202102006
    Abstract1983)   HTML146)    PDF (1787KB)(1287)      

    Talents are the core driving force for regional innovation and development, and they are also the key to urban competition in the future. Based on the data of the sixth population census and the national 1% population sampling survey in 2015, this paper uses the concentration index (CI), Gini index (GI) and several related spatial analysis methods to examine the spatial patterns of highly educated talents across China and the drivers behind these patterns from 2010 to 2015. The results are as follows: (1) Talents show highly concentrated and unbalanced spatial distribution patterns at the city level over the five years, but the trend of concentration and imbalance has gradually eased. Results from standard deviation ellipse (SDE) indicate that the distribution direction of highly educated people is "NE-SW". Furthermore, there is a significant spatial spillover effect in the distribution of talents, with three major urban agglomerations of China as the highlands. (2) Economic opportunities are the dominant drivers for the distribution of highly educated talents in China. Among them, wages are the core driver, and gross GDP and industrial structure of each city also exert a significant impact. (3) After controlling the impacts of economic opportunities, local quality variables represented by basic public services (e.g., education and medical care), transportation accessibility and urban consumption facilities play an important role in the distribution of highly educated talents. (4) There are significant differences between the driving factors for talents in urban agglomerations and non-urban agglomerations: economic opportunities are the main driving force for the distribution of talents in both urban agglomerations and non-urban agglomerations, while local qualities including education, consumption, transportation and natural environment have a more significant impact on the distribution of talents in urban agglomerations. This study provides references for the formulation of urban and regional talent policies and regional development policies.

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    Changing spatial patterns of internal migration to five major urban agglomerations in China
    CAO Guangzhong, CHEN Sichuang, LIU Tao
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (6): 1334-1349.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202106002
    Abstract2470)   HTML220)    PDF (3104KB)(1274)      

    Internal migration in China has presented a series of new characteristics recently. The secondary migration and spatial redistribution of existing migrants become increasingly important in determining the future patterns of urbanization. Urban agglomerations (UAs) have long been the major destination of China's internal migration. They are also appointed as the main form of future urbanization in the recently released national planning of new-type urbanization. Five major UAs were selected as a case study, including three coastal ones, namely the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the Pearl River Delta (PRD), and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH), and two inland ones, namely the Middle Yangtze River (MYR) and the Chengdu-Chongqing (CC) region. Based on data of the latest population census and the dynamic monitoring survey of floating population in the five major UAs, this paper first examined the spatial patterns of in-migrants from multiple dimensions of destination, origin, and distance of migration. The trends and urbanization effects of migration on the destination and origin were then assessed by comparing the settlement and hukou transfer intentions of migrants with different origins and destinations. The results showed the coexistence of common and distinct features in these mega regions. Although the continuous attractiveness of central cities for migrants was observed in all regions, peripheral cities in the YRD and PRD have become increasingly attractive as well, leading to a moderately dispersing trend in these two pioneering coastal UAs. Moreover, the concentration level and spatial distribution of migrants among cities were generally stable in the YRD and PRD but continuously adjusting in the BTH and two inland UAs. The fastest growth was found in inter-county migration within province and the slowest in intra-county migration. The coastal UAs were strongly preferred by inter-provincial migrants, while the inland ones could only attract migrants from the same or surrounding provinces. Despite this, significant distance attenuation was found in all of them. In terms of the origins of migrants, those from central provinces had flowed mainly to the YRD and PRD, whereas those from the northeast showed a high preference for the BTH region. We can anticipate the future patterns of migration and urbanization from the settlement intentions of migrants from and to different cities. From the destination view, the advantage in public services made central cities considerably more attractive than other cities. Hence, they are expected to be continuously faced with severe contradiction between supply and demand of public services. In the inland UAs, however, central cities and ordinary ones are able to share the pressure of public service provision. From the original view, the high-quality and equally accessible public services are important for inland regions to attract return migrants, and providing high possibility for the return-migration-induced urbanization. However, the population loss in the northeast may become a long-term trend that can hardly be reversed in the visible future.

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    Water at the Bottom of a Cauldron:The Flood and Flood Control of Wen’anwa Depression during Ming and Qing Dynasties
    Bu Fan
    Historical Geography Research    2022, 42 (3): 28-41.  
    Abstract361)   HTML9)    PDF (1920KB)(1265)      

    Located along the lower reaches of Daqing River and Ziya River, the Wen’anwa(文安洼) in Wen’an and Dacheng County of Hebei Province is a low-lying depression and shaped like “the bottom of a cauldron” in colloquial language. It is difficult to drain its water reserve, which often caused severe flood disasters in the past. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Wen’an County took many measures, such as building dikes, diverting river courses, and planting rice in shallow water, to control the flood but to no avail. It was not only the environmental factors, such as the low-lying terrain and the silt of the lower reaches of Daqing River and Ziya River, that made it hard to control the flood in the Wen’anwa Depression, but also social factors, such as the conflicting interests of water control between Wen’an County and the surrounding prefectural and counties, and the lack of ability and tactfulness of water management by Wen’an County itself.

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    Disciplinary structure and development strategy ofhuman geography in China
    FAN Jie, ZHAO Pengjun, ZHOU Shangyi, DENG Xiangzheng, WANG Chen
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (9): 2083-2093.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202109003
    Abstract2390)   HTML393)    PDF (1046KB)(1262)      

    Human geography is a discipline which studies the formation and evolution of the geographical distribution pattern of human activities. The main research objects of human geography focus on human activities and human-earth relationship. The scientific questions to be answered by human geography cover both natural science and social science, and thus it has distinctive interdisciplinary features. In China, the economic and social processes of human activities are playing an important role in explaining the law in human geography discipline as human society development is approaching or has entered the post-industrialization stage. The logics and methods of social science have become important tools through which the changes in processes and patterns of human geography can be reasonably discussed and properly understood. Research methodology of human geography shows integration characteristics between natural sciences and social sciences. The outcomes of human geography research reveal scientific laws in geographical distribution pattern and evolution of human activities. It becomes one of primary disciplines for both the national and local governments to manage and optimize the pattern of spatial development and protection. It has wide applications in spatial planning, regional strategy and policy making, and the modernization of spatial governance. The unique feature in integrating academic research and policy-making applications provides human geography discipline in China a superiority of leading the world in the discipline. Besides comprehensive human geography, human geography in China has five subdisciplines, namely, economic geography, urban geography, rural geography, social and cultural geography and political geography. Each subdiscipline has priority and key research fields, and coordinates with the rest of subdisciplines.

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    Regionalization of flash floods in China
    CHEN Yuehong, XU Congcong, ZHANG Xiaoxiang, ZHANG Ruojing, MA Qiang, LIU Changjun, REN Liliang, SHI Kaixin
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (5): 1059-1073.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202305001
    Abstract1574)   HTML359)    PDF (4275KB)(1244)      

    According to the Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China, the number of casualties in flash flood disasters accounts for nearly 70% of flood disaster casualties in recent years and flash flood has become one of the major natural disasters causing casualties in China. Flash flood regionalization is fundamental for implementing the local measures of the flash flood prevention and mitigation according to local conditions. Using results from existing flash flood relevant physiographical regionalization schemes, and in accordance with the principles of comprehensive, dominant factors, the relative consistency within units, the relative difference between units, the integrity of spatial distribution and the hierarchical divisions, this paper firstly constructs an index system of the flash flood trigger factors and its underlying surface environment for the flash flood regionalization in China. In the combination of top-down and bottom-up regionalization, the hybrid self-organizing-map-based spatial clustering algorithm is then built. Finally, nine homogeneous regions at the first-grade and thirty-three subregions at the second-grade are delineated for flash floods in China. The historical flash flood events and the Geodetector method are adopted to evaluate the developed regionalization schemes. Results show that the first-grade and the second-grade flash flood regionalization schemes in China can respectively provide the determinant power of 66.4% and 75.4% for the spatial distribution of historical flash flood events in the whole country, indicating the developed flash flood regionalization has a good spatial consistency with the distribution of historical flash flood events with different densities. The developed flash flood regionalization not only effectively delineates the regional differentiation pattern of flash floods, but also provides a scientific basis for the implementation of localized flash flood prevention and mitigation measures in China, which benefits for the sound development of flash flood disasters prevention and management in China.

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    The spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of Chinese villages
    ZHOU Yang, HUANG Han, LIU Yansui
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2020, 75 (10): 2206-2223.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202010012
    Abstract3244)   HTML162)    PDF (6205KB)(1231)      

    Village is the object of rural governance and revitalization. It is of great scientific value to carry out the research on the spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors for comprehensively promoting the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. This study systematically integrated the multi-source data such as the longitude and latitude coordinates of the village, geo-environment, traffic conditions and socio-economic level, and comprehensively applied spatial analysis, kernel density estimation and Ripley's K-function to describe the spatial distribution characteristics of Chinese villages and identify the influencing factors of village spatial differentiation. The results demonstrated that the evolution of villages follows the life cycle laws of formation, development, stability, decline, and revitalization, which is affected by the natural geographical environment and human, social, and economic factors. The speed, intensity, direction, and outcome of village evolution vary across regions over time. Further analysis results showed that the distribution density of villages in China is 0.353 per square kilometer. Overall, the number of villages in China is larger in the south than in the north, and larger in the east than in the west, and characterized by agglomeration in the southeast and dispersion in the northwest. Villages are most densely distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River Basin. With Hu's line as the boundary, the density of villages in the southeast is higher than that in the northwest. The Moran indexes of the kernel density of villages on the scales of province, county and township are 0.580, 0.861 and 0.910, respectively, showing obvious spatial aggregation characteristics. The spatial distribution of villages in each province presents an inverted U-shaped pattern, and the difference is obvious between provinces. The distribution pattern of Chinese villages is the result of the interactive coupling of geographical environment, location conditions, and social and economic factors. The spatial distribution of Chinese villages is relatively concentrated under the conditions of a slope of 6°-8°, an altitude of less than 200 m, rainfall of 1100-1200 mm, average annual temperature of 15-19 ℃, and anthropogenic soil and cultivated vegetation. The spatial distribution of villages is clustered along roads and rivers. The density of villages in the buffer zone of 100-300 m around roads and rivers is the largest, and gradually decreases as the buffer distance increases. Under the background of comprehensively promoting the strategy of rural revitalization, it is urgent to systematically analyze the causes and dynamic mechanism of rural recession, identify the geographical distribution and types of declining villages, and explore the feasible ways and regional models of rural revitalization.

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    China's changing population distribution and influencing factors: Insights from the 2020 census data
    LIU Tao, PENG Rongxi, ZHUO Yunxia, CAO Guangzhong
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2022, 77 (2): 381-394.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202202008
    Abstract4382)   HTML446)    PDF (2718KB)(1227)      

    Using data of the latest three decennial censuses, this paper systematically analyzes the overall spatial pattern, changing trends, and influence mechanisms of China's population distribution since 2000. The study reveals that the general population distribution pattern of "dense east and sparse west" in China has not changed, which is determined by the differences in natural geographic environments on the two sides of Hu Line. In the first decade of the century, population concentration was mainly found in the southeastern area, but it has been observed in all regions in the recent decade. Provincial capitals have become the winners of population competition and the advantages of population growth of provincial capitals have been further strengthened in the recent decade compared with 2000-2010. However, the administrative power-led effects of the increasing dominance of provincial capitals will gradually weaken with the development of their provinces. The regional differentiation of population changes is also apparent: coastal region gradually forms a dense belt of population and towns with solid population attraction based on the development of urban agglomerations; the northeast region almost turns to a complete population shrinking status; central provinces still compete fiercely for population based on their capitals; the population of Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guizhou has stopped the decline and returned to growth; and the northwest region faces the risk of population loss. In addition, this paper finds that the driving factors of regional population growth have gradually changed from economic factors to both economic and amenity factors, and the difference of amenities among regions may become an important factor for future changes in China's population geography.

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    The finding and significance of the super altitudinal belt of montane deciduous broad-leaved forests in central Qinling Mountains
    ZHANG Baiping, YAO Yonghui, XIAO Fei, ZHOU Wenzuo, ZHU Lianqi, ZHANG Junhua, ZHAO Fang, BAI Hongying, WANG Jing, YU Fuqin, ZHANG Xinghang, LIU Junjie, LI Jiayu, JIANG Ya
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2022, 77 (9): 2236-2248.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202209007
    Abstract5096)   HTML271)    PDF (3374KB)(1199)      

    Mountain altitudinal belts are the miniature of horizontal differentiation and succession of climatic and vegetational zonation. However, altitudinal belts' vertical range, transition model, inner structure and combining pattern vary from place to place. In Mt. Taibai of the central section of China's north-south transitional zone, we have found an altitudinal belt with the largest range in the world, namely, the montane deciduous broad-leaved forest, which extends continuously from the mountain base to about 2800 m, including basal oak belt, typical oak belt of two sub-belts and cold-tolerant pioneer birch belt of two sub-belts, which could otherwise develop independently. Characterized by a "three layers and five sub-belts" structure, this "super altitudinal belt" is much vertically broader than the threshold of 1000 m for normal altitudinal belts. Its formation is closely related with its transitional geographic location, integral spectrum of altitudinal belts in central Qinling Mountains, rich and diverse species of deciduous woody plants, and their strong competitiveness. The finding of the super altitudinal belt has multiple significance: Its existence is another significant physio-geographic feature of China's north-south transitional zone; it shows that an altitudinal belt may have rather complex inner structure and broad vertical range in some special mountain environment. This broadens our understanding of altitudinal belt structures and their mechanisms, and is of great significance for developing structural theory for montane altitudinal belts. This finding also demonstrates that there are many big questions for us to explore and study in the north-south transitional zone, and it is expected that our finding could trigger in-depth study of local climate and biodiversity responsible for the formation of this super belt, and of the complex structure and ecological effect of China's north-south transitional zone.

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    Water-food-energy nexus: Progress, challenges and prospect
    LIN Zhihui, LIU Xianfeng, CHEN Ying, FU Bojie
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (7): 1591-1604.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202107002
    Abstract1570)   HTML184)    PDF (1946KB)(1175)      

    The water-food-energy nexus (WFE) plays a key role in achieving sustainable development. In this study, we systematically analyzed the concept of the WFE nexus and review its recent progress. We found that the academic communities have not reached a unanimous understanding of the concept of the WFE nexus and research framework. The evaluation methodology of the WFE nexus presents a transition from the traditional sectoral research paradigm to the human-environment system paradigm that considers the intersection of natural science and social science. These methods can also be grouped into three categories: an evaluation based on a critical process, an evaluation based on the whole system, and a comprehensive evaluation that involves coupling the internal and external elements of the WFE nexus. A bibliometric analysis shows that the number of research papers concerning the WFE nexus increased exponentially during 2000 to 2019, and the increase was particularly significant after 2015. Environmental science, food science, and nutrition science are the three main disciplines in WFE nexus research. More important, we need to strengthen the application of geography thinking, that is, comprehensive and systematic thinking, to study the WFE nexus in the future. Based on the literature review, we found that existing research lacked a quantitative understanding of the mutual feedback among the WFE nexus and its evolution. Therefore, we suggest the following five priority areas for future research: establishing a multi-source database of the WFE nexus, revealing the mutual feedback mechanism of the WFE nexus, developing a coupling model of the WFE nexus, establishing a decision-making platform for the WFE nexus, and promoting the collaboration of multiple sectors related to the WFE nexus. This will help to achieve a synergetic sustainable development of the WFE nexus through system governance and scientific management.

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    Assessment of ecological benefits of key national ecological projects in China in 2000-2019 using remote sensing
    SHAO Quanqin, LIU Shuchao, NING Jia, LIU Guobo, YANG Fan, ZHANG Xiongyi, NIU Linan, HUANG Haibo, FAN Jiangwen, LIU Jiyuan
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2022, 77 (9): 2133-2153.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202209001
    Abstract2446)   HTML285)    PDF (10476KB)(1170)      

    We propose a theoretical framework for assessing the ecological benefits provided by national key ecological projects in China over the past 20 years. A dataset consisting of six primary indicators and nine secondary indicators of ecosystem structure, ecosystem quality, and ecosystem services for the period 2000-2019 was generated using ground survey and remote sensing data. Ecological benefits were quantitatively evaluated following the implementation of national key ecological projects in China. Areas with medium, relatively high, and high degrees of ecological restoration accounted for 24.1%, 11.9%, and 1.7% of the national land area, respectively. Degrees of ecological restoration were higher in areas with a greater number of ecological projects. Areas with relatively high and high degrees of ecological restoration were mainly concentrated in the Loess Plateau, the farming-pastoral zone of northern China, the Northeast China Plain, and an area spanning the border areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, and Hunan. The relative contributions of climatic factors and ecological projects to changes in vegetation net primary productivity were 85.4% and 14.6%, respectively, and the relative contributions of climatic factors and ecological projects to changes in water erosion modulus were 69.5% and 30.5%, respectively. The restoration potential of national vegetation coverage was 20%, and the restoration potential percentages of forest and grassland vegetation coverage were 6.4% and 23%, respectively. Climatic conditions can inhibit ecological restoration. Areas with relatively high and high degrees of ecological restoration were mainly distributed in areas with an annual average temperature greater than 0 ℃ and annual precipitation greater than 300 mm. Therefore, the limitations associated with climate conditions should be considered during the implementation of national ecological projects. The implementation of single ecological projects or single ecological restoration measures should be avoided, the use of combined measures should be emphasized, and the benefits of ecological investment funds should be maximized.

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    The ideological origins and geographical demarcation significance of Hu Huanyong Line
    DING Jinhong, CHENG Chen, ZHANG Weijia, TIAN Yang
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2021, 76 (6): 1317-1333.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202106001
    Abstract3513)   HTML159)    PDF (986KB)(1161)      

    In the early 20th century, China was faced with domestic crisis and foreign invasion, and the man-land contradictions were unprecedented fierce. Geographers pondered and explored the issues of national fortune such as China's population status, northwest exploitation and internal migration, thus China's population geography emerged as the times required. "The distribution of population in China" published by Hu Huanyong in 1935 is a symbol of maturity of China's population geography. The Hu Huanyong Line (also known as Hu Line) proposed in this paper, which he originally called the Aihui-Tengchong Line, is a significant geographical demarcation of China's population. The existence and stability of the Hu Line have been repeatedly verified by census data, and its scientific principles have also been revealed and explained by the academic circles from aspects of nature, economy, social culture, etc. This paper points out that grain and employment are the two hidden logics behind the Hu Line. The Hu Line is becoming a crucial national geographic demarcation, which has an increasingly essential impact on the cognition and analysis of China's national conditions. Recent research on the Hu Line has been widely extended in various fields and meanings, and there arose some amendments and adaptations of the line in practice. Under the influence of "Premier Li Keqiang's three questions", whether the Hu Line can be broken through has become an academic hot spot. This paper holds that it is more important to create more opportunities of the northwest region than to increase the share of population so as to balance regional development.

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