Low efficiency of earth kilns used in the carbonising process of wood to make charcoal has been reported as one of the sources of increasing charcoal wastes in the global south. However, the potential link and approaches of converting charcoal wastes-to-valuable energy and for the environmental health is not well known in Africa. Promoting local community capacity engagement in the production and reutilisation of recycled charcoal wastes at the households’ level is one of important measures to maintain environmental services for sustainability since households make decisions on the type of energy used. This paper, presents an approach of converting charcoal wastes to fuel energy for rural households and environmental health in Kilosa District, Tanzania. To achieve the objective of this research, the primary data were collected through interviews held with 298 randomly selected households, Focus Group Discussions and observations. IBM SPSS statistics version 20 Cross tab tools were used in the data analysis. Results revealed that the conversion of charcoal wastes-to-fuel energy approach used in this research demonstrates the ability of recyclable briquettes made from the locally available charcoal pollutants collected at different stages from earth kilns, to selling centers, improves tree harvest behaviour, adds another fuel energy source through reutilisation, and ultimate reduces pollution at the local level. Thus, the study provides a basis for policymakers to adopt charcoal wastes recycling strategies to address matters related to energy and ultimately enhances environmental health for sustainable development in Tanzania and beyond.

Urban trees are valuable resources for urban areas as they have the capacity to reduce ambient temperatures, mitigate urban heat island effects and reduce runoff of rainwater playing an important role in mitigating the impacts of climate change by reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). It also helps to reduce aerial suspended particulate matter, add visual appeal to the urban landscape sequestrating a significant amount of carbon from ambient atmospheric CO2. Carbon storage by urban trees in the ring road area of the Kathmandu Valley was quantified to assess the magnitude and role of urban forests in relation to mitigate the impact of global climate change. A total of 40 sample plots were placed randomly for the detailed carbon assessment. Aboveground and belowground carbon pools were considered in the detailed assessment. Furthermore, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) were maintained through regular monitoring and capacity building of the field crews while collecting the bio-physical data. The assessment recorded a total of 33 different species of plants in the avenue’s plantation sites in ring road. The mean seedling, sapling, and tree density was found to be 2149585 and 185 per hectare. The mean carbon stock per hectare in the avenue plantation of the ring road area was 24.03 tC ha1 and the existing total carbon stock was 7785.72 tC in 2021. Likewise, the total baseline carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in the avenue plantation was found to be 28573.60 tCO2e. The carbon dioxide emission from the transport sector in the ring road area in a full movement scenario was 312888.00 tCO2e per annum, while the net emissions was 42547 tCO2e. There was a deficit of carbon dioxide in terms of stock by avenue plantations of 14000.8 tCO2e.This study indicates that the existing urban forest plantation is unable to sequestrate or offset the carbon dioxide that is emitted through the transportation sector. Consequently, open spaces like riverbanks and any other public lands, in which urban forests could be developed has to be planned for the green infrastructure and plantation of the multipurpose trees. The distinct values of forests in and around urban areas have to be recognized in the specific policies and plans for the sustainable management of urban and peri-urban forests to meet the adverse impact of global climate change. In addition, this study provides insights for decision-makers to better understand the role of urban forests and make sustainable management plans for urban forests in the cities like in Kathmandu Valley.

Delimiting ecological space scientifically and making reasonable predictions of the spatial-temporal trend of changes in the dominant ecosystem service functions (ESFs) are the basis of constructing an ecological protection pattern of territorial space, which has important theoretical significance and application value. At present, most research on the identification, functional partitioning and pattern reconstruction of ecological space refers to the current ESFs and their structural information, which ignores the spatial-temporal dynamic nature of the comprehensive and dominant ESFs, and does not seriously consider the change simulation in the dominant ESFs of the future ecological space. This affects the rationality of constructing an ecological space protection pattern to some extent. In this study, we propose an ecological space delimitation method based on the dynamic change characteristics of the ESFs, realize the identification of the ecological space range in Qionglai city and solve the problem of ignoring the spatial-temporal changes of ESFs in current research. On this basis, we also apply the Markov-CA model to integrate the spatial-temporal change characteristics of the dominant ESFs, successfully realize the simulation of the spatial-temporal changes in the dominant ESFs in Qionglai city’s ecological space in 2025, find a suitable method for simulating ecological spatial-temporal changes and also provide a basis for constructing a reasonable ecological space protection pattern. This study finds that the comprehensive quantity of ESF and its annual rate of change in Qionglai city show obvious dynamics, which confirms the necessity of considering the dynamic characteristics of ESFs when identifying ecological space. The areas of ecological space in Qionglai city represent 98307 ha by using the ecological space identification method proposed in this study, which is consistent with the ecological spatial distribution in the local ecological civilization construction plan. This confirms the reliability of the ecological space identification method based on the dynamic characteristics of the ESFs. The results also show that the dominant ESFs in Qionglai city represented strong non-stationary characteristics during 2003-2019, which showed that we should fully consider the influence of the dynamics in the dominant ESFs on the future ESF pattern during the process of constructing the ecological spatial protection pattern. The Markov-CA model realized the simulation of spatial-temporal changes in the dominant ESFs with a high precision Kappa coefficient of above 0.95, which illustrated the feasibility of using this model to simulate the future dominant ESF spatial pattern. The simulation results showed that the dominant ESFs in Qionglai will still undergo mutual conversions during 2019-2025 due to the effect of the their non-stationary nature. The ecological space will still maintain the three dominant ESFs of primary product production, climate regulation and hydrological regulation in 2025, but their areas will change to 32793 ha, 52490 ha and 13024 ha, respectively. This study can serve as a scientific reference for the delimitation of the ecological conservation redline, ecological function regionalization and the construction of an ecological spatial protection pattern.

Abstract: By studying the structural characteristics and carbon storage of the mangrove island ecosystem in the 
Beibu Gulf, this study provides a scientific basis for mangrove ecological compensation in the coastal areas of 
Guangxi, South China Sea. On the basis of the unmanned aerial vehicle remote sensing images and a sample plot 
survey, the object-oriented multi-scale segmentation algorithm is used to extract the mangrove community type information, and one-way analysis of variance is conducted to analyse the structural characteristics of the mangrove 
community. The carbon storage and carbon density of different mangrove ecosystems were obtained based on the 
allometric growth equation of mangrove plants. The analysis yielded four main results. (1) The island group covers 
about 27.10 ha, 41.32% (11.20 ha) of which represents mangrove areas. The mangrove forest is widely distributed 
in the tidal flats around the islands. (2) The main mangrove types were Aegiceras corniculatum, Kandelia obovata + 
Aegiceras corniculatum, Avicennia marina + Aegiceras corniculatum and Avicennia marina communities. (3) 
Amongst the mangrove plants, Avicennia marina had the highest biomass (18.52 kg plant–1), followed by Kandelia 
obovata (7.84 kg plant–1) and Aegiceras corniculatum (3.85 kg plant–1). (4) The mangrove carbon density difference 
was significant. Kandelia obovata had the highest carbon density (148.03 t ha–1), followed by Avicennia marina
(104.79 t ha–1) and Aegiceras corniculatum (99.24 t ha–1). The carbon storage of the mangrove island ecosystem 
was 1194.70 t, which was higher than in other areas with the same latitude. The carbon sequestration capacity of 
the mangrove was relatively strong.

With the acceleration of urbanization, a New Urban-Rural Amphibiousness phenomenon has emerged, characterized by groups that facilitate the bidirectional flow of key development factors across urban and rural areas. However, research on the strategic interactions among multiple actors and the integrated development mechanisms of the "agriculture and culture-tourism+" model from the urban-rural amphibiousness perspective remains limited. Taking Houguan village in Fujian province as a case, this study develops an Improved Multi-Layer Network Model based on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which overcomes the limitations of single-theory approaches to reveal the interconnections among the village's agriculture, culture-tourism and education network. Drawing on symbiosis theory, this study elucidates the integrated development mechanism of the "agriculture, culture-tourism and education" model. The findings indicate that: (1) Houguan village has developed a multi-layer integrated mutual feedback system encompassing agriculture, culture-tourism and education. Cross-layer connections formed through dynamic interactions among actors such as the village committee, New Urban-Rural Amphibiousness groups, government agencies, and college students, which strengthen resource integration across industries. (2) Actors across all layers jointly act on the obligatory passage. Among them, the New Urban-Rural Amphibiousness groups serve as the main force, and together with the village committee, government, college students, and other participants, they constitute a stable "one superpower with multiple strong players" network pattern, ensuring the smooth operation of industrial integration. (3) This network exhibits a high global overlap rate, strong network resilience, and a high inter-layer correlation index, which enhances the network's ability to withstand external disturbances and promotes efficient resource allocation across layers. (4) Houguan village's circular symbiotic structure facilitates interactive collaboration among different groups across various industries and enables synergistic effects across layers. This structure directly contributes to the formation of an organically integrated development mechanism "agriculture and culture-tourism+ education". The findings aim to offer practical guidance and theoretical support for advancing the "agriculture and culture-tourism" pathway to rural revitalization.

The rural revitalization strategy drives rural living space to undergo a transformation from "survival carrier" to "quality space". However, existing studies have limitations such as neglecting top-down forces in the structural dimension, having unclear definitions of core fields, and insufficient integration of spatial systems. Therefore, this article follows the logical sequence of "conceptual model - multidimensional features - interaction mechanism - production mechanism" to explore the construction of a totality conceptual model and a systematic research framework for rural living spaces. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Rural living space is the overall projection of multi-subject social relations and spatial practices in geographical space. Drawing on the socio-spatial dialectic, three-fold model of rural space and the theory of daily life practice, this paper constructs a totality conceptual model of rural living space. This model integrates the attributes of spatiality, sociality, and historicity; encompasses multiple spatial types within the multi-level county-town-village-home system; carries diverse functions such as living, employment, consumption, leisure, education, and healthcare; and incorporates the triple structure and dynamic interactions among material space, formal representation, and daily activities. (2) Based on the behavioral logic embedded in rural residents' daily activities, this study proposes the county as the core field of rural living space, highlighting the need for systematic coordination between the overall settlement environment at the village level and multi-level categorical living spaces across the county scale. (3) The production of rural living space is essentially a process whereby, under the combined influence of multi-dimensional interactions and multiple driving forces, the relational forms and coordination dynamics within the tripartite structure of formal representation-material space-daily activities undergo transformation, driving changes in both the systemic equilibrium and the functional nature of the space. Accordingly, this study proposes a research framework that progresses in layers, encompassing multidimensional characteristics, interactive mechanisms, and production mechanisms. Studying rural living space from the perspective of totality and dynamic production helps enrich the theory of rural space and provides academic support for the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and the development of livable living spaces.

The cropland scale operation is an important development direction of cropland utilization in China. This interview conducts an in-depth discussion on the definition, influencing factors and development pathways of cropland scale operation, with the main contents outlined as follows. Firstly, the concept of "five-in-one" cropland scale operation was proposed. The concept covers various connotations, characterizing cropland scale operation from five dimensions: area expansion, the concentration of cropland property rights, the organization of cropland operation, the specialization of production activities, and the agglomeration of landscapes. These dimensions are interrelated and influence each other. Among them, the concentration of cropland management rights serve as the foundation of other dimensions, which promotes the large-scale area, organization of operation, the specialization of production activities, and the agglomeration of landscapes. Secondly, the factors influencing the cropland scale operation were analyzed. From the perspective of per capita income, in order to keep up with the continuously increasing income of urban residents, farmers will mainly achieve this by increasing the scale of cropland operation. From this perspective, the rapid development of the urban economy determines that the cropland scale operation is a long-term development trend. However, the development of the cropland scale operation is also a complex and nonlinear process, and there are many factors affecting the operation, such as agricultural subsidies, technological development, changes in agricultural product prices, and the entry of elderly labor force. In addition, land resource endowment is also a key factor affecting the cropland scale operation. The large differences between the south and north parts of China clearly illustrate this point. Thirdly, the pathway of the cropland scale operation was analyzed. The operation is a combination of the "bottom-up" approach of farmers and the "top-down" approach of the governments at different levles. The "bottom-up" approach of farmers is the main pathway for promoting the cropland scale operation by the land transfers, but most of the transfers are spontaneous and disorderly among small-scale farmers, with high transaction costs, frequent breaches of agreements, and insufficient socialized land management services. The governments mainly influence the process of the cropland scale operation. Lastly, the future pattern of cropland use in China was discussed. Due to the various reasons, different-sized cropland use entities in China will coexist for a long time. (1) The different entities may have vast differences in their demand for cropland size. For example, the cropland scale of agricultural enterprises is definitely much larger than that of elderly laborers. The opportunity cost of elderly laborers is lower, and a smaller cropland scale can meet their farming needs. The small-scale agriculture by elderly laborers delays the process of large-scale management. (2) The cropland scale operation will vary greatly across regions (such as southern and northern regions, mountainous and plain areas).

As China's urbanization enters a stage focused on enhancing the quality of existing urban stock, urban regeneration has emerged as a pivotal strategy for fostering high-quality development and the construction of a modern people-centric city. This paper aims to systematically explore the theoretical and practical pathways for advancing the modern people-centric city through urban regeneration. It begins by examining the development concepts and practical experiences of leading international cities to provide a reference for localized implementation. The study then traces the historical evolution of China's urban development priority from "production-centered" to "people-centered", underscoring the historical inevitability of this paradigm shift. Building on this analysis, the core connotations of the "modern people-centered city" are elaborated. The core section of the paper systematically outlines the pathways through which urban regeneration promotes the multidimensional goals of innovation, livability, beauty, resilience, civility, and smartness. These pathways include: comprehensive improvement guided by livability and civility; functional revitalization driven by innovation and smartness; resilience rebuilding based on security and beauty; and area-wide coordination through systematic and integrated approaches. Finally, the study proposes a systematic set of policy recommendations, offering a theoretically grounded and practically relevant framework for high-quality development of a modern people-centric city through urban regeneration.

Geography centers on the study of integrated human-environment systems, focusing on the interaction between human activities and the geographical environment. In recent years, the exploration of theories and methodologies related to resilient cities has gradually become a research hotspot in urban geography. However, existing studies on resilient cities within the field of urban geography often rely on the adaptation and transfer of external concepts, lacking integration with the core foundations rooted in the geographic perspective. In response, this article reviewed the developmental trajectory of research on resilient cities, analyzed the geographic connotations of resilient city research, and put forward the following propositions: 1) From the perspective of urban geography, resilient city research should center on the disaster risk-constrained human-environment relationships. 2) The coupled system formed by "human activities-resource endowments-disaster impacts" constitutes the principal framework for investigating resilient cities within urban geography. 3) The interactions between human activities, resource endowments, and disaster impacts across multiple temporal and spatial scales often exhibit complexities, nonlinearities, and instabilities comparable to those of the "three-body problem" in gravitational physics. 4) Both the short-term, sudden disturbances and the long-term, gradual evolution within the human-environment-disaster system can be constrained and regulated through territorial spatial governance measures. This article provides a preliminary exploration of the theory of disaster risk-constrained human-environment relationships, and presents an analysis and verification using the Zhengzhou "7·20" extreme rainstorm disaster event as a case study, aiming to provide a theoretical reference for promoting high-quality and sustainable urban development in China.

Ecological spatial governance is crucial for modernizing China's governance system and achieving the Beautiful China vision. This study develops an analytical framework to examine its mechanisms and pathways. Key findings include: (1) Eco-environmental governance modernization exhibits a spatial shift, restructuring rights, patterns, processes, and services, supporting ecological governance and the Beautiful China strategy. (2) A "conflict-coordination-symbiosis" framework establishes a holistic governance system, balancing spatial-element coordination, structure-function synergy, and value-efficiency integration. (3) Governance is implemented through socio-ecological integration, multi-objective synergy, and stakeholder negotiation, enhancing Beautiful China mechanisms. (4) Cross-tier operational mechanisms enable improved spatial planning, land-use regulation, and ecological restoration, facilitating the Beautiful China goal.

[Objectives] Geographic Knowledge Graph (GeoKG) employs knowledge graph techniques to represent geographic knowledge as a computer-interpretable, reusable, and inferable knowledge network. However, due to the sparsity of geographic information distribution and outdated updates, GeoKGs are often incomplete, which restricts their breadth and depth of application. Geographic knowledge graph completion techniques are needed to address this incompleteness. Nevertheless, existing knowledge graph completion methods fail to fully account for the semantic information within GeoKGs and the distance-decaying effect governing interactions among geographic entities, resulting in an embedding space that inadequately captures the true distribution of geographic entities and relations, thereby limiting completion performance. [Methods] To address this issue, this study proposes a Distance-Decaying Effect-Aware Geographic Knowledge Graph Completion method (DDGKGC). The method first captures semantic information and distance-related features between entities and relations through a semantic information aggregation module and a distance-decaying effect-aware module. Then, a dual-attention mechanism-based representation learning module adaptively learns neighborhood information of entities and relations to derive their embeddings. Finally, the ConvE scoring function is used for prediction, and the results are applied to complete the GeoKGs. [Results] To comprehensively evaluate model performance,this study conducts comparative experiments, ablation studies, and multi-dimensional validation analyses on the self-constructed datasets Multi-Geo, CityDirection, and CountyDistance, as well as the public dataset Countries-S3. Experimental results demonstrate that DDGKGC achieves outstanding performance across multiple metrics including MRR, Hits@1, Hits@3, and Hits@10. Particularly in terms of MRR, which comprehensively reflects model performance, DDGKGC outperforms the baseline methods by 4%, 3.1%, 1.8%, and 5.2% on the four datasets, respectively. Moreover, through multi-dimensional validation and analysis, it is proven that DDGKGC can more effectively model the spatial and semantic relationships among geographic entities, thereby enhancing the accuracy and geographic plausibility of completion results. [Conclusions] The results demonstrate that the proposed method not only effectively enhances the performance of the geographic knowledge graph completion task but also exhibits strong generalization capability and application potential. Furthermore, it provides reliable support for the advanced application of GeoKGs.

With the accelerated transition of the global energy structure and expansion of the renewable energy sector, critical materials such as rare earth elements are becoming increasingly important in the wind power industry chain. However, the current complex geopolitical environment, constrains the free flow of the global wind power supply chain. Therefore, the trade network structure and evolutionary characteristics of critical products must be analyzed from a segmented industry chain perspective. Simultaneously, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides a multinational cooperation framework to systematically assess its role in promoting the integration of participating countries into the wind power industry chain trade network, enhancing their trade network positions, and alleviating resource and technology constraints. This study constructed a segmented global trade network for the wind power industry chain and quantitatively examined how BRI affects the trade network positions of participating countries, along with the underlying mechanisms. The study draws on trade data from 52 major countries and regions for the 2009-2022 period. Rare earth ores, rare earth permanent magnets, and direct-drive wind turbines were selected to represent the upstream, midstream, and downstream segments of the industry chain, respectively. A directed and weighted trade network was constructed to capture the structural characteristics and evolutionary trends of the network. A multi-period difference-in-differences model was employed to evaluate the impact of the BRI on the trade network positions of countries along the initiative’s route, and mechanisms such as policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, and trade facilitation were incorporated to assess the channels through which the initiative affects trade network embedding. First, the results indicate that the global wind power industry chain trade network has become increasingly complex, with a growing scale, enhanced connectivity, and significant small-world properties across all segments, reflecting the networked nature of the global supply chain. Among the segments, the midstream permanent magnet network exhibited the highest connectivity and clustering, the upstream rare earth network was sparse, and the downstream complete turbine network was constrained by market access limitations and standardization levels. Second, Germany, the United States, and China are core countries across different segments, whereas the networks of major participating countries are becoming increasingly diversified, with resource-rich European countries such as Denmark and Belgium gaining greater importance over time. China’s position exhibits a composite pattern of "strong downstream, stable midstream, weak upstream," and through systematic cooperation under the BRI, its network position has improved. Despite certain bottlenecks in key technological control, China has become a key component in the global wind power industry chain, significantly influencing the production and application of wind power equipment. Finally, BRI significantly enhanced the trade network positions of participating countries in the wind power industry chain. The initiative’s effects exhibited pronounced heterogeneity across industry chain segments, levels of national development, and spatial corridors, with particularly strong effects observed for resource- and technology-intensive segments, developed countries, and countries along the Silk Road. The mechanism analysis indicates that policy coordination enhances network embedding through intergovernmental cooperation and foreign aid, whereas infrastructure and trade facilitation improve shipping connectivity and reduce tariffs, thereby indirectly enhancing the trade position of the countries. The contributions of this study are twofold. First, it constructs a global wind power trade network from a segmented industry chain perspective, revealing heterogeneous characteristics across segments. Second, it systematically evaluates the effects of the BRI on the policy, infrastructure, and trade dimensions, providing theoretical and practical guidance for formulating international renewable energy cooperation policies and optimizing the industry chain layout for participating countries.

Amidst the global transition toward renewable energy, China has emerged as the world leader in solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity and generation. However, the climatic risks and operational stability of this extensively deployed PV infrastructure under future climate change remain insufficiently assessed. Previous studies have primarily focused on the theoretical PV power-generation potential (P_solarPV) across terrestrial areas, overlooking the specific climatic risks of existing operational PV facilities. This study addresses this critical gap through a comprehensive, multi-dimensional risk assessment for China's deployed PV systems. We developed a high-resolution hourly P_solarPV model driven by a multi-model ensemble from the NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections (NEX-GDDP-CMIP6) under three greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenarios from 2015 to 2060. Focusing on China’s existing deployed PV infrastructure and seven representative regions, we quantified future changes in annual P_solarPV and their driving factors, the frequency of extreme PV power events (energy "surplus" and energy “deficit” days), and intra-annual variability (short-term fluctuations and seasonal variations). Our results reveal that future trends in P_solarPV across China’s PV deployments are shaped by the opposing effects of increasing solar radiation (positive effect) and rising surface temperatures (negative effect). Under the low-emission scenario (SSP1-2.6), enhanced solar radiation dominates, leading to a nationwide increase in annual P_solarPV of 3.4%±0.4% (multi-model mean ± standard error). In contrast, under the high-emission scenario (SSP5-8.5), thermal-induced efficiency losses offset these gains, resulting in a slight increase of 0.6%±0.4% in P_solarPV and a rise in the frequency of poor-power days by 0.1 d per decade. Moreover, climate-induced impacts exhibited pronounced spatial heterogeneity. With increasing GHG emissions, deployed PV systems in northwestern, northern, and eastern China are projected to be the most climate-sensitive, experiencing greater changes in power-generation potential and more frequent extreme power-generation events. Northwest China, where PV deployments are concentrated, is projected to experience a decline of -0.5%±0.2% in P_solarPV and an increase of 1.0 d per decade in extreme poor-power days under the high-emission scenario. Conversely, the deployed PV systems in South and Southwest China exhibited stronger climate resilience. Furthermore, higher GHG-emission scenarios are expected to intensify seasonal and short-term P_solarPV fluctuations, especially in northern regions (e.g., Northeast, North, and Northwest China), posing greater challenges to grid stability and power dispatch management. In conclusion, this study provides the first location-specific, forward-looking climate risk assessment of China's existing PV infrastructure. These findings highlight that stringent GHG mitigation is critical for safeguarding solar energy assets and ensuring the long-term sustainability of PV power generation. They also emphasize the need for spatially differentiated climate adaptation strategies, including optimizing future deployment in climate-resilient regions, strengthening grid capacity with advanced energy storage, and enacting policies that enhance the climate resilience of China’s solar power system.

In the context of ecological civilization construction and high-quality development, exploring the mechanisms of local environmental governance transformation under globalization is of substantial academic significance for understanding regional sustainable development. Existing studies on environmental governance in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) have mainly examined the driving forces from a single perspective, such as economic development, industrial structure, and globalization. However, relatively limited attention has been paid to identifying the hierarchical roles and evolutionary dynamics of multiple factors from a multi-scalar interaction perspective, particularly the intermediary roles of institutional spillovers from Hong Kong and Macao in regional governance. To address this gap, this study develops an analytical framework of "globalization input-local response-environmental governance" from the perspective of the geography of sustainability transitions. Using the GeoDetector method, this study systematically examined the spatiotemporal evolution of environmental regulation intensity and its driving mechanisms across nine cities in the PRD from 1990 to 2018. The main findings are as follows. First, environmental regulation intensity in the PRD has increased continuously over time, exhibiting distinct stage-based transitions and forming a spatial gradient centered on highly open cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Second, the driving forces of local environmental governance evolved from an endogenous, development-driven stage dominated by economic growth and urbanization to a multi-scalar governance mode characterized by interactions between globalization inputs and local institutional responses. Lastly, institutional opening channels play a critical bridging role in governance transition. In particular, the number of first-class ports demonstrates the strongest explanatory power, indicating that global environmental rules and governance concepts are primarily embedded in local governance systems through institutional channels of opening. Under the influence of Hong Kong’s and Macao’s institutional spillovers, these processes further promote local institutional innovation and improve governance capacity. This study suggests that, in highly open regions, environmental governance transformation is driven jointly by global rule diffusion, local institutional absorption, and cross-jurisdictional institutional interactions. By revealing the evolutionary mechanisms of environmental governance from a multi-scalar interaction perspective, this study extends the explanatory power of the geography of sustainability transitions in the context of cross-border institutional interactions and regional institutional diversity. It provides new theoretical insights and empirical evidence for understanding environmental governance transformation in open regions.

This study proposed a theoretical framework of "spatial justice perception-psychological transformation-behavior formation." Using multisource data, including semi-structured interviews, participatory observations, and secondary materials, the research applied a constructing grounded theory approach involving a four-level coding analysis: initial coding, focused coding, axial coding, and theoretical coding. By deconstructing individuals’ perceptions of spatial injustice, this study reconstructed the dimensions of spatial justice and examined the differences in perceptions and behavioral mechanisms between tourists and local residents. The key findings are as follows: (1) Both tourists and residents derive their spatial justice perceptions from issues of spatial injustice, which are reconstructed in four core dimensions: distributive justice, procedural justice, recognition justice, and restorative justice. For tourists, the psychological transformation mechanism operates as follows: perceptions of distributive, recognition, and restorative injustice trigger disappointment in service value, alienation in the cultural experience, and a sense of lack of ecological education, leading to imbalanced spatial value perception. Perceptions of distributive and recognition injustice shape cognitive biases such as deviation from group preferences and a lack of cultural respect, resulting in conflicts with spatial discipline. Perceptions of distributive and restorative injustice weaken behavioral confidence and decision-making autonomy, causing diminished spatial agency. For residents, perceptions of distributive, recognition, and restorative injustice induce survival anxiety, cultural anxiety, increased economic burden, reinforced doubts about fairness, and a heightened sense of deprivation, leading to perceived spatial survival pressure. Perceptions of procedural injustice foster intergroup opposition, intensify value conflicts, and erode group trust, resulting in a torn spatial identity. Perceptions of procedural and restorative injustice jointly reduce decision autonomy and undermine developmental confidence, leading to reduced spatial empowerment. (2) Structural differences exist between tourists and residents in spatial justice perception and behavior, rooted in the profound tension between two spatial attributes—"paradise" vs "homeland"—and their respective subject positions. Tourists who occupy transient, consumption-oriented positions prioritize experiential rights. They often expressed dissatisfaction through negative word-of-mouth, passive participation, on-site compensation, or rule-breaking adventures. Their negative behaviors generate short-term public opinion and operational pressure, whereas their long-term effects can undermine destination attractiveness. Residents situated in fixed livelihood-dependent positions emphasize their rights to survival, development, and culture. They tend to adopt resistance measures, such as boycotts, collective action, external appeals, covert resistance, and strategic gaming. Their negative actions easily provoke governance conflicts and social risks, potentially undermining the legitimacy of governance in the long term. This study contributes theoretically by deconstructing differences in spatial justice perceptions between tourists and residents of Potatso National Park, and deepens the connotation of spatial justice theory in ecological conservation contexts, complementing existing research focused on urban development. Second, it innovatively proposes "restorative justice" as a key dimension in ecological conservation, defining it as "dismantling structural roots of injustice through systematic intervention to halt the reproduction of spatial conflicts and achieve sustainable reconciliation of eco-social relations." Finally, moving beyond macro-structural perspectives, this study constructed a micro-level analytical framework, offering new theoretical tools to analyze the psychological formation of spatial justice and advance national park governance. Practically, this study systematically identifies real-world issues in Potatso National Park’s conservation and management, analyzes the underlying mechanisms, and proposes targeted, multi-dimensional governance strategies tailored to different stakeholders. This study provides concrete pathways for enhancing park governance effectiveness.

The "tidal phenomenon" of tourist flows in rural destinations—characterized by peak-season overcrowding and off-season stagnation—poses a critical barrier to sustainable development. Conventional hard strategies, such as capacity expansion and price regulation, are often inefficient and may undermine local authenticity. The soundscape, as a largely overlooked form of sensory capital, offers potential to flexibly guide tourists’ spatio-temporal behavior; however, its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study integrates sensory capital, cultural acoustics, and spatio-temporal fix theories to construct a "value-meaning-practice" framework, aiming to elucidate the core pathways and differentiated strategies for soundscape-based mitigation. A multi-case qualitative design encompassed six rural destinations in China: Yuantang Terraces and Libo Zhangjiang (ecological), Yongding Tulou and Dangjia Village (cultural-heritage), and Moganshan and Zhanqi Village (suburban). Data were collected through participant observation (7-15 days per site), in-depth interviews (80 respondents; approximately 120,000 words), and textual analyses (327 User-Generated Content (UGC) items and official documents). The analysis followed a three-stage coding process using NVivo 12 until theoretical saturation was achieved. The results revealed a three-stage progressive pathway—sensory capital activation, cultural acoustics empowerment, and spatio-temporal fixation—embedded within a self-reinforcing feedback loop. At the sensory capital activation level, natural soundscapes generate use value through stress reduction and attention restoration, extending tourists’ average dwell time at Yuantang Terraces by 20 min. Humanistic soundscapes generate symbolic value through nostalgia and participatory engagement. Elderly tourists in Dangjia Village planned winter return visits triggered by traditional peddlers’ calls, while younger tourists developed a sense of belonging through interactive drum performances. Soundscapes also carry exchange value as information carriers: the "rice paddy frog calls" short video in Zhanqi Village directly prompted off-season bookings, while off-season mountain singing in Yongding Tulou encouraged off-peak recommendations. At the cultural acoustics empowerment level, local communities encode productive and everyday soundscapes (e.g., rammed earth chanting symbolizing solidarity and morning pestle sounds reflecting a grain-cherishing philosophy). Tourists decode these sounds through generational, urban-rural, and cultural distance lenses, thereby fostering deep place attachment. Drum sounds initially perceived as "noisy" were reinterpreted as “powerfully beautiful” after tourists learned about their historical military and harvest functions. This internalization translates into three behavioral outcomes: off-season intention (e.g., Moganshan winter bamboo-listening participants expressed a willingness to revisit during the off-season), consumption desire (e.g., purchasing soundscape-themed teaware as memory vessels), and enhanced sharing motivation (e.g., UGC related to weaving sounds achieved significantly higher interaction rates than conventional landscape photographs). At the spatio-temporal fixation level, spatial diversion during peak seasons achieves a geographical fix: zoning of Yuantang Terraces into quiet listening and interactive areas reduced core-area crowding by an estimated 28%, while drum sounds in Dangjia Village acted as an "acoustic lighthouse," guiding tourists toward peripheral alleys. Temporal staggering during the off-season achieves a temporal fix: Libo Zhangjiang’s "summer night firefly stream soundscape" narrative increased off-season visitation by 35%, while Moganshan’s soundscape membership system (off-season points redeemable for peak-season privileges) cultivated stable off-season visitation habits. This process forms a self-reinforcing loop—"deep experience → identity reinforcement → active off-peak behavior"—providing endogenous momentum for long-term visitor balance. The mechanism exhibits differentiated emphases across rural types: ecological villages prioritize use value and restorative experiences; cultural heritage villages emphasize symbolic value and cultural authenticity; and suburban villages prioritize exchange value and flexible scene construction. The essence of soundscape mitigation lies in a systematic socio-cultural process of "sensory activation → cultural identification → spatio-temporal restructuring," with its feedback loop ensuring sustainability. The theoretical contributions are twofold: first, the study introduces an auditory dimension into sensory capital theory by operationalizing a three-dimensional value system and demonstrating how soundscapes guide spatio-temporal decisions through physiological, emotional, and cognitive pathways, thereby challenging the visual-centric bias in tourism geography; second, it establishes a cultural interpretative pathway for spatio-temporal fixation theory by demonstrating that soundscape-based cultural narratives constitute a non-economic fix, thereby extending the theory’s application from capital logic to sensory-cultural governance.

Significant progress has been made in the Beautiful China Initiative, where the discipline of geography has leveraged its comprehensive and regional strengths to play a key role. To address the technological needs of this initiative, geographers have organized and undertaken major scientific and technological tasks, such as the "Ecological Civilization Project Towards a Beautiful China". Through continuous innovation across multiple domains—including Major Function Oriented Zoning, territorial space development and protection, comprehensive environmental pollution control, regional joint prevention and control, eco-geographical regionalization, ecological environment restoration and protection zoning, and the evaluation of Beautiful China Initiative's progress and the synergy of ecological civilization construction—geographers have continuously advanced the geographical theories, methods, and research paradigms pertaining to the Initiative. These efforts have provided crucial scientific and technological support for opening the pathway for turning "lucid waters and lush mountains" into "invaluable assets", promoting the integrated protection and restoration of mountain-river-forest-farmland-lake-grassland-desert system, and advancing the prevention and control of environmental pollution, thereby played a prominent role in building a "Modernization Characterized by Harmonious Coexistence between Man and Nature". The Beautiful China Initiative has propelled the geographical study of human-environment interactions into a new era of ecological civilization; it likewise stands as a major national-level practice for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. In the new phase of comprehensively advancing the Beautiful China Initiative and implementing the global sustainable development agenda, geography should focus on addressing resource and environmental pressures and spatial disparities. Specifically, it should: (1) Conduct research on integrated prevention and control of ecological environment risks in key regions; (2) Deepen the understanding of human-environment relationships, and advance research on enhancing resource carrying capacity and promoting efficient resource utilization; (3) Coordinate the Regional Coordinated Development Strategy, Regional Major Strategy, and Major Function Oriented Zoning Strategy to conduct research on the spatial framework supporting the Beautiful China Initiative across all domains; (4) Leverage new technologies such as large-scale Low Earth Orbit satellite constellations and artificial intelligence to enhance ecological and environmental monitoring and assessment capabilities, and to plan the spatial distribution of green, low-carbon, and new quality productive forces; (5) Share the experiences of the Beautiful China Initiative and strengthen green cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative, thereby contributing to the shared goals of global sustainable development.

Research on the geomorphological regionalization of the Mongolian Plateau has long been limited by ambiguities in boundary delineation and inconsistencies in indicator systems. This study integrates multisource geospatial data to establish principles for defining the extent of the Mongolian Plateau on the basis of dominant genetic mechanisms and morphological characteristics, and it presents a comprehensive framework for geomorphological regionalization. By combining a bottom-up merging strategy with a top-down subdivision approach, and by employing a hybrid clustering model that couples a self-organizing feature map (SOFM) with Ward's hierarchical method, we systematically delineate the boundaries of the Mongolian Plateau and construct a three-level geomorphological regionalization scheme. Results indicate the following: (1) The total area of the Mongolian Plateau is approximately 2.83 million km², spanning Mongolia, China, and Russia. Its boundaries extend eastward to the western slopes of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, southward to the Qilian Mountains-southern Ordos margin, westward to the Sayan-Altai mountain systems, and northward to the southern edge of the Stanovoy Highlands. (2) The regionalization scheme identifies 3 primary geomorphological regions, 18 secondary subregions, and 66 tertiary units. This framework reveals spatial heterogeneity patterns of landforms, where macroscale structures are governed by tectonic uplift, and microscale differentiation is shaped by climatic processes. This study provides a scientific basis and foundational dataset for ecological security assessment and transboundary resource management across the Mongolian Plateau.

How to systematically leverage the superposition effects of the coordinated regional development strategy, major regional strategies, the major functional zoning strategy, and the new urbanization strategy is a key issue in promoting the modernization of territorial spatial governance in China. Based on the evolutionary logic of the territorial development and governance strategic system, this study clarifies the new context, new vision, new requirements, and new goals facing the current strategic framework, and analyzes the synergistic relationships among different types and series of strategies. The results indicate that the superposition of multiple strategies in practice has promoted improvements in development efficiency, optimization of spatial structure, enhancement of regional coordination, and enhancement of governance capacity. However, there remain several issues, including unclear regional division of functions, insufficient policy coordination, and implementation pathways that require optimization. In response, this study proposes a coordinated policy pathway anchored in the “four major orientations” and “five major superposition effects”, providing both a theoretical basis and practical reference for the coordination of planning and policies across different levels and categories. The study not only expands the theoretical connotation of regional strategic superposition effects, but also provides an operational analytical framework for the coordinated implementation of major national strategies.