Yangtze River Delta, as a pivotal region where the coastal axis and the riverside axis intersect, is characterized by complexity, diversity and typicality of the spatial structural evolution. Therefore, understanding its evolutionary pattern and constructing a theoretical model has important theoretical significance and application value. According to the core-periphery structure theory, the Yangtze River Delta can be divided into a core area that is centered on the Taihu Lake Basin and remaining periphery areas. However, due to its location at the junction of the river and the sea, a gateway area has emerged within the periphery area, thus forming a spatial structure that is composed of the core area and the gateway area. In the early period, the core area was centered on Suzhou, and a five-tier central place structure became well established since ancient times. However, the gateway area kept evolving and underwent three main changes: in ancient times, the gateway area was centered on Yangzhou, forming the canal gateway cluster; in the modern age, the gateway area became centered on Shanghai, forming an offshore gateway cluster; and in the contemporary era, the gateway area became centered on Ningbo, forming an oceanic gateway cluster. Their corresponding navigation capacities were 500 t, 10,000 t, and 200,000 t, respectively. Therefore, in addition to the existing central place theory and seaport spatial structure theory, the spatial structure evolution of the Yangtze River Delta presents a new evolutionary model: namely, the fusion evolutionary model of central places and port gateways. According to this model, in the early period, it was an endogenous evolution of the core area's spatial structure, which was in line with Christaller's hexagonal structure; while in modern times, the evolution of the spatial structure of the Yangtze River Delta was no longer dominated by central places, but rather, it became dominated by the gateway areas, making the k = 3 market principle turn into the k = 4 transportation principle. In this way, the Yangtze River Delta provides a globally exemplary empirical case for validating the process test of the central place theory, analyzing functional attributes of urban centrality and gateway, and refining the relevant theoretical model.

The rapid pace of urbanization and the continuous evolution of social attitudes underscore the importance of examining subjective well-being among migrants from a gender perspective. Based on the literature in the Web of Science Core Collection database, CiteSpace was used to analyze the related literature econometrically. The research on migrants' subjective well-being from the gender perspective is systematized in terms of relevant theories, temporal and spatial evolution characteristics, research hotspots, regional differences, and so on. The findings indicate that theories about subjective well-being are evolving at a rapid pace, with a research trend exhibiting a fluctuating upward trajectory. The research area has a strong localization. The main topics of interest in current research include: multidimensional characteristics, family well-being, social problems, and group differences. Concurrently, domestic and international research trends exhibit differentiation, which is reflected in the research theme, object, perspective, and other aspects. It is proposed that Chinese migrant women exhibit distinctive characteristics that warrant further investigation. In the future, academics should strive to enhance and expand the research on subjective well-being by focusing on themes such as the multifaceted effects and underlying mechanisms of subjective well-being, China's socio-cultural context, and geographic perspectives.

Given the real-world challenges in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is important to study and formulate a localized assessment indicator system for each SDGs to monitor the current status of sustainable development at different scales, identify problems, and develop countermeasures. Based on the "economy-society-environment" three-dimensional theoretical framework for sustainable development, this study deconstructs the connotation of SDG11 at the community level, and constructs an urban community sustainability assessment indicator system containing 7 goals and 13 indexes. In addition, by taking 602 sample communities in the built-up regions of Changsha as an example, this study utilizes multi-source big data to comprehensively assess community sustainability as well as the coupling coordination degree of the communities' economic-social-environmental systems. It is found that: (1) During the period 2010-2020, the degree of achievement of community SDG in Changsha falls in the "relative closeness" range, with a "core-periphery" spatial distribution from the high sections to the low ones. (2) Of the 7 goals, housing guarantee, disaster prevention and relief, and environmental governance are progressing well; public transportation and heritage protection are improving significantly; public space is rising slowly; however, planning management is less than ideal. (3) Based on the assessment results of the coupling coordination degree of the communities' economic-social-environmental systems, the sample communities are classified into three types: coordinated development, transitional development, and dysfunctional decline communities. Then, in addition to the zoning results of core, central urban, and suburban areas, a differentiated governance path is proposed. (4) The assessment indicator system has high validity and needs to be further enhanced with a larger number of empirical cases in the future. The research results enrich the theoretical system of community sustainability and technical means of assessment. The empirical part of the study takes the statutory communities in the built-up area of Changsha as the research object and carries out the assessment of community sustainability at three time points: 2010, 2015, and 2020. This help in grasping the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of community sustainability and its law of evolution at the city level and provide scientific support for carrying out refined urban planning and community governance. The data used in the indicator system mainly come from objective big data with temporal continuity, which is conducive for conducting longitudinal continuous tracking research and horizontal comparison research with other cities.

In the past 40 years since the theory of "pole-axis system" was put forward, its connotation has been continuously enriched, which has profoundly influenced the theoretical and empirical research in multiple disciplines. The theory has also greatly contributed to China's spatial development of national territory, planning and construction of urban system, and layout of major productive forces. In the new era, China's major regional strategies have profound scientific connotations, yet they still need to overcome blockages such as loose connections within and between urban agglomerations in the course of practice. In this sense, the framework of multi-dimensional proximity from the perspective of evolutionary economic geography can be instructive, since it further focuses on the dimensional linkages of cognitive proximity, technological proximity, relational proximity, and social proximity. Thus, in the context of "dual circulation" strategy, China's territorial space development should be further guided by the theory of "pole-axis system" as well as the framework of multi-dimensional proximity, accelerating the cultivation of new quality productivity, constructing a resilient network of inter-regional industrial collaboration, and comprehensively empowering regional high-quality development.

This paper reviews the social background of "pole-axis system" theory and the "T-shaped" land development and economic layout framework in China, especially the objective conditions that the country cannot implement another "strategic shift" of national development priorities, and the academic contribution of economic geography serving to national strategic development, as well as some concepts, ideas, knowledge and methods to achieve this goal. According to the significance and the scholars' comments of this theory and model in national practice, this paper describes the growth course and academic responsibility of an economic geographer to inspire the academic community to uphold the rigorous attitude of seeking truth from facts to make greater contributions to the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

Against the background of ecological civilization construction, optimizing the control of territorial spatial zoning has become an important issue in maintaining regional ecological security. Clarifying different ecological processes and mechanisms within and among different ecological functional zones is of great practical significance for formulating refined spatial ecological management strategies. So far, research studies have focused on delineating ecological functional zones and analyzing linear processes and mechanisms within them, with little discussion on the differences in internal mechanisms and nonlinear characteristics of different ecological functional zones. Thus, it is necessary to elucidate key differences in the internal mechanisms and nonlinear threshold effects among different ecological functional zones to provide a scientific basis for establishing a territorial spatial zoning management system. In this study, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-Offs model was used to evaluate ecosystem services in the Pearl River Delta region. Toward this, a self-organizing map was used to identify ecosystem service bundles, and geographically weighted regression and restrictive cubic spline analysis were used to clarify the key differences in trade-off/synergy networks and nonlinear thresholds among different ecosystem service bundles. Based on the results, suggestions for refined zoning and control of ecological spaces in the Pearl River Delta region are proposed. The results showed that: (1) In the Pearl River Delta, five different types of ecosystem service bundles are distributed in a circular pattern in space from the central to the surrounding areas: the urban-ecological, ecological-scarcity, agricultural-ecological, ecological-cooling, and ecological-conservation types. The ecological-conservation type accounted for 45.38% (the largest proportion), ecological-cooling for 32.80%, and ecological-scarcity for 10.73% of ecosystem service bundles; whereas neither the agricultural-ecological nor urban-ecological types accounted for more than 10%. (2) In the trade-off/synergy network of different ecosystem service bundles, the synergistic relationship between carbon storage and urban cooling remained stable, whereas the relationships between other ecosystem services showed significant differences. Among the five bundles, the trade-off/synergy interaction of the urban-ecological type was the strongest, followed by that of the agricultural-ecological and ecological-conservation types, whereas that of the ecological-cooling and ecological-scarcity types were relatively weak. (3) There were significant differences in the nonlinear threshold effects between the Multiple Ecosystem Services Landscape Index (MESLI) and six identified driving factors in the different ecosystem service bundles. In the ecological conservation and ecological scarcity types, the MESLI exhibited nonlinear relationships with all six factors and clear critical thresholds. The MESLIs of the agricultural ecological and ecological cooling types exhibited nonlinear relationships with elevation, night light, gross domestic product density, and population density, whereas that of the urban ecological type only exhibited nonlinear relationships with elevation and population density. (4) We suggest that decision makers use nonlinear thresholds as references to demarcate key control areas for each ecosystem service bundle, clarify their dominant mechanisms based on trade-off/synergy networks, and develop different control indicators in a targeted manner. In conclusion. this study identified key differences in trade-off/synergy networks and nonlinear threshold effects among different ecosystem service bundles and explored different ecological zoning and control strategies for the Pearl River Delta region, providing a theoretical basis and indicator references for refined management of territorial spaces in urban agglomeration areas.

Coastal cities are highly vulnerable to compound flooding in which multiple flood drivers interact via complex nonlinear mechanisms under climate change. Although numerous studies have focused on individual flood drivers, integrated analyses of the spatiotemporal variations and compound effects remain limited. This study applied a high-resolution MRI-AGCM3-2-S climate model and the TempestExtremes tracking algorithm to construct a 6-hourly Tropical Cyclone (TC) track dataset affecting Haikou from 1960 to 2099. Storm tides during the TCs were simulated using the D-Flow FM model, whereas upstream river discharges were modeled with CaMa-Flood, incorporating climate-model-derived runoff data. Using rainfall data from the climate model, we applied the peak-over-threshold method and extreme value analysis to systematically assess changes in storm tides, rainfall, and upstream discharge under climate change. These analyses guided the construction of compound flood scenarios for simulating extreme events. Using a compound flood simulation model, we assessed the hazards under 10-year and 50-year Return Periods (RPs) for historical (1960–2014) and future (2015–2099) periods. Results indicate that significant differences exist in the compound flood characteristics between historical and future periods. In the 90^th percentile scenario, all three flood drivers exhibited higher future thresholds, suggesting an increased risk of compound extreme flood events. The probability of concurrent heavy rainfall and high discharge events increased by 40.9%, whereas the probability of simultaneous high storm surge and high discharge events increased by 58.3%. Despite the potential reduction in extreme event intensity, the frequency of compounding events has increased significantly. Extreme value analysis revealed that extreme storm surges and upstream discharge events became more severe and extreme rainfall events showed a decreasing trend. For high RPs (e.g., 50-year events), the projected storm tides and upstream discharges significantly exceeded historical levels. Specifically, projected increases in storm surge levels (+0.24 m under 50-year RP) and upstream discharge (+1,271.13 m³/s) are offset by a 16.5% decline in 100-year accumulated rainfall for Haikou when compared to historical period. Third, compound flood simulations showed that under the 10-year RP scenario, the total inundation area slightly increased, but the flood volume and maximum depth decreased, indicating the stabilization of the flood hazard. However, under the 50-year RP scenario, both the inundation area and flood volume increased substantially, with the area experiencing flood depths greater than 3 m expanding by 56.5%. The most severe flooding occurred along the northern coastal areas and banks of the Nandu River, where the inundation extent and flood severity increased markedly. These findings provide valuable insights for flood risk assessments and adaptive planning in coastal cities facing intensifying climate-induced hazards.

High-quality development of the marine economy is a key task for accelerating the construction of a maritime power, so as to realize Chinese-style modernization. This paper defines the scientific connotation of marine economy and its high-quality development. Based on the three major systems of marine economy and the five new development concepts, this paper synthesizes the high-quality development index of marine economy by means of vertical and horizontal separation grade method and fixed-base efficiency coefficient method. Then, with the help of the method of Dagum Gini coefficient, Markov matrix, standard deviation ellipse and geographic detector, spatio-temporal evolution and driving factors of high-quality development in coastal areas are systematically discussed. The results show that: (1) The continuous improvement of the comprehensive level of high-quality marine economic development is due to the collaborative optimization of marine economic, social and environmental systems. Guangdong, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are key regions leading the improvement of marine economic quality and efficiency. (2) The quality of marine economic development has obvious spatial and temporal differences. To be specific, there is a large gap within the southern blue economic circle, and the gap between the northern and eastern blue economic circles is also the most prominent. (3) The high-quality development of marine economy is moving forward in twists and turns. In terms of time, most provinces have the power to advance to a higher level, but the difficulty of transition is gradually increasing; In terms of space, the center of gravity of the marine economy's geographical pattern is always located in the Yangtze River Delta, forming a steady-state spatial structure of "one core and two wings". (4) The optimization of the quality of marine economy is the result of the joint action of the new development concept. After the introduction of the strategy of maritime power, innovation empowerment has replaced opening-up as the first driving force. In order to steadily promote the high-quality development of the marine economy at a higher level, it is necessary to implement the new development concept, which include give full play to the leading role of the blue economic zone, enhance the core competitiveness of the marine industry, build a free trade port with high standards, promote the cause of revitalizing the sea through science and education to cultivate new quality productive forces, deepen the construction of marine ecological civilization as well as clarify the key tasks of coastal areas. In this way, the sound operation of the marine economic, social and environmental systems tend to be promoted, completing the glorious mission of transforming to a maritime power.

Major productive forces are crucial to the country's long-term stability and sustained prosperity, and are also a powerful means of improving economic efficiency, promoting coordinated regional development, and strengthening international competitiveness. This paper summarizes the layout of China's major productive forces and their spatial patterns in different periods by collecting multi-source data such as historical documents, regional socio-economic statistical data and remote sensing of light, and borrowing technical methods such as MCR model, kernel density analysis and standard deviation ellipse, etc. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The layout of China's major productive forces follows the law of economic geography agglomeration and diffusion cycle evolution, and has experienced the evolution of balanced development - decentralised development - centralised development - coordinated development-high-quality complementary development. This is manifested in the concentration of 156 projects to a few geographic spaces in the western region of China, dispersion in the central and western regions during the Third Front Movement, concentration along the eastern coast, and a gradient advancement toward the inland. However, the focus of development has always been in the southeast region along the Hu Huanyong line. (2) The results of the spatial pattern simulation of major productive forces follow the theory of regional development stages. During China's high-level development process, different spatial patterns have emerged successively: points (core poles), point-axis, and point-axis system (network), forming a multi-level pole-axis system with a "T" main framework along the coast and the Yangtze River, supplemented by other central cities and transportation arteries, in order to promote the balanced development of territorial space. (3) The main influencing factors of the development layout of China's major productive forces vary from time to time, with the geo-environment influencing the spatial layout in the early stage, and then the combined force of national strategies, policies and markets; GTWR further reveals that there is significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the factors influencing the development layout. The GTWR further reveals that there is significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the factors affecting its development layout. This study focuses on the layout and spatial patterns of the major productive forces, which can provide practical references for optimizing the layout of major productive forces and constructing a regional economic layout and national spatial system with complementary advantages and high-quality development.

Owing to the long-standing land-sea division, the regional development theory represented by the pole-axis system has conducted insufficient research on the development potential of the land-sea transition zone and even the marine space. In this context, this paper re-explores the marine orientation of the "pole-axis system" theory and investigates the application of the pole-axis system beyond the land-based thinking. Specifically, taking the currently highly-regarded development of the Hainan Free Trade Port (HFTP) as an example, it commences from the general laws of island economies, traces the geographical relationships and development history of Hainan Island, and based on the expansion of the "pole-axis system" theory, deliberates on the development direction and ideas of the HFTP. This paper emphasizes that: (1) The spatial metaphor of isolation and connectivity of islands within the context of the pole-axis system are mutually reinforcing and compatible, and the cultivation and development of the pole-axis system of the HFTP need to take into account the synergetic effects of the island's geographical relationships at different spatial scales, namely the global, national, regional, and local levels. (2) The pole-axis system of HFTP highlights the role of "flow" rather than geographical proximity in the growth of islands and island clusters. The focus on island-island relationships needs to shift from centrality to the exploration of node attributes, while the focus on land-island relationships needs to change from hierarchy to functional complementarity. (3) The HFTP needs to establish an economic and industrial composite pole-axis system that integrates land, island, and sea, and deepen the intrinsic driving force for the coordinated development of different geographic units through the bidirectional interaction of "defining development based on the sea" and "leaning on the land towards the sea". This study hopes to contribute to enriching and enhancing the marine orientation of the "pole-axis system" theory and deepening the study of islands, including the HFTP, other island economies, and the entire island.

China is deeply interwoven with the world, which has an important impact on the economic geographical pattern of Chinese-style modernization. The economic geographical pattern of Chinese-style modernization is mainly configurated by three relations: relations between urban and rural areas, relations between the eastern and western regions, and relations between China and foreign countries. It is the foundation of the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Using strategic-relational approach, this paper analyzes the characteristics of pattern evolution dialectically from the perspective of political party discourse and multi-scale spatial characteristics. After 1840, the capitalist world system disintegrated China's unified pattern, and the regional imbalance and rural-urban gap became prominent in China. At the beginning of the 20th century, the imbalance and gaps intensified in China amid the world's multipolar conflicts. The Communist Party of China created the path of the rural areas to encircle the cities and won the victory of the Chinese revolution, which also changed the world pattern. After 1949, under the Cold War, China began to embark on the path of independently building socialism with Chinese characteristics. The relations between urban and rural areas, between eastern and western regions, between China and foreign countries are shifting to balance. Since the reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, globalization and multi-polarization have propelled the transformation of Chinese-style modernization. The imbalance has shifted from worsening to easing, and China has quickly become an important pole in the world. The world is undergoing profound transformation unseen in a century, uneven development between urban and rural areas, between the eastern and western regions, between China and foreign countries is fraught with uncertainties. Coordinating the three relations is the key to the realization of Chinese-style modernization. China-world relations have a U-shaped cycle of 50 years, regional relations play an intermediary role, and rural-urban relations are the easiest to change. It is necessary to strengthen the research of the economic geographical pattern of modernization, and integrate the three relations into a new development pattern. The H-shaped pattern should integrate spatial development strategies and reshape an open oriented, inside-out pattern through institutional innovation and the empowerment of talent resources.

Skilled migration is a pivotal phenomenon underpinning globalization that has attracted widespread scholarly interest; a nuanced understanding of the patterns and mechanisms of skilled migration is considered essential for fostering coordinated regional development and enhancing labor market allocation. To compare the domestic and international talent mobility research in the 21^st century and advance China's talent mobility theory, In this paper, we reviewed Chinese and English literature from fields such as geography, urban planning, demography, economics, and management since 2000 via quantitative and qualitative analysis. Initially, we conducted bibliometric and keyword co-occurrence analyses using CiteSpace to identify research hotspots and trends; subsequently, we performed Qualitative Data Analysis Miner qualitative analysis as a supplementary approach to derive in-depth insights and determine connections between literature sources. Herein, we summarize the research hotspots regarding skilled migration, domestically and internationally. We found that concerning research hotpots, domestic research emphasizes the spatial distribution of different types of talent, the impact of urban factors on skilled migration, and the interplay between talent and urban innovation. In contrast, international research emphasizes more on the mobility decisions of highly skilled migrants within a globalization context, focusing on the impact of international high-skilled migration on the destination and origin countries, the micro-level mechanisms of migration decision-making (such as family dynamics, gender roles, and early career stages), and social adaptation in destination countries (including identity, sense of belonging, and related factors). Theoretically, both domestic and international studies are based on labor migration theory, examining skilled migration mechanisms from macro-regional and micro-individual perspectives, and expanding theoretical frameworks to include amenities and the creative class. However, owing to differences in social, economic, institutional, and developmental contexts among countries, these theories are not entirely applicable in practice, particularly regarding their explanatory power in the Chinese context, which requires further examination. Furthermore, in terms of research progress, we found that international studies are increasingly highlighting the life course of migrants and the socio-cultural micro-mechanisms influencing skilled migration, emphasizing the adoption of a combination of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods. Conversely, domestic research predominantly focuses on the spatial patterns of skilled migration and the effects of macro-urban factors, relying on quantitative analyses. Future research in China should aim to examine micro-mechanisms, develop indigenous theoretical frameworks to foster theoretical innovation, and enhance the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods. Moreover, exploiting the potential of big data and emerging technologies could contribute towards overcoming limitations associated with data acquisition. On the basis of our survey of current theories and methods, we propose the following four directions for future research: (1) strengthening investigations into the micro-mechanisms of skilled migration; (2) developing indigenous theoretical frameworks to support theoretical innovation in China; (3) promoting the integration of qualitative and quantitative research methods; and (4) enhancing data acquisition and exploiting big data and advanced technologies to overcome the current limitations associated with acquiring data.

Urban Blue-Green Spaces (UBGS) are material carriers that support public life and expand social interactions. It is also a natural place to realize the spatial publicness. In the context of the ecological civilization, China has made specific achievements in constructing a UBGS. However, optimizing its spatial structure and improving the quality of the human environment is only the beginning. Enhancing its publicness and thus strengthening social cohesion, enriching cultural diversity, cultivating the public spirit, and realizing the well-being of humankind on a broader scale is the ultimate goal of UBGS. Drawing on the theories of the human-land relationship and landscape ecology, we established an evaluation system for UBGS publicness based on the "element-function-structure" framework. We used Changsha as an example to explore the UBGS publicness pattern characteristics and influencing factors. The study results are as follows: 1) A UBGS with high publicness should have three significant characteristics: accessible elements, selectable functions, and shared structures, which promote and expand public life and support other social connections. 2) The comprehensive indicator of UBGS publicness in Changsha showed a circular pattern, decreasing from the core to the periphery and a fan-shaped expansion relying on the water system. Regarding element accessibility, spatial accessibility was high in the core area and low in the suburbs. In contrast, quantity adequacy was low in the core area and high in the suburbs. In terms of functional selectivity, group inclusiveness was low along the Xiangjiang River in the core and center areas and lower on the east bank than on the west bank, whereas functional diversity was high in the core area and low in the suburban areas. In terms of structural connectivity and shareability, interactive connectivity shows a high core area, a low peri-urban area, and a wedge-shaped interlocking circle pattern in the transition zone between the core area and the peri-urban area, accompanied by a high belt characteristic along the scenic belt; the landscape connectivity shows a low core area, a high peri-urban area, and a pattern characteristic of the west bank of the Xiangjiang River that is higher than that of the east bank. 3) Social demand, economic boosts, and environmental support promote the spatial heterogeneity of the UBGS publicness. Based on the research results, improving the publicness of the UBGS in Changsha can be approached from the following aspects: first, increasing funding and policy support for the construction of the UBGS, expanding its scale, and improving its quality. Second, respecting the spatial distribution characteristics and activity patterns of the public and optimize the functional organization of the UBGS and the surrounding environment. Third, when constructing urban ecosystems, road systems, greenway systems, and public service facility systems, the construction of the UBGS should be considered comprehensively, and the coupling relationship between the UBGS and other urban subsystems should be enhanced. This study constructed a theoretical framework and evaluation system for assessing UBGS publicness and evaluated UBGS publicness on an urban scale. The results of this evaluation will promote the construction of livable cities and the implementation of the concept of sustainable urban development.

Based on the data from childcare institutions released by the National Health Commission in June 2024, this study examines the spatial differentiation of childcare institutions across China using four provincial-level cities and 332 prefecture-level regions. The research employs ArcGIS spatial analysis methods and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) to uncover the influencing factors behind this spatial variation. Key findings include: (1) Childcare institutions in China predominantly exhibit a clustered distribution, characterized by a greater concentration in the east and sparser distribution in the west. This pattern manifests as "large clusters and small dispersions," with significant clusters forming in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Bohai Rim, and numerous monocentric clusters centered around provincial capitals and major cities. (2) The number of childcare institutions is positively correlated with the tier of the city. Cities with fewer childcare facilities are numerous and spread out, primarily located in the western and northeastern regions. In contrast, cities with a larger number of institutions are mainly situated in the eastern coastal areas and major central-western cities such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Hefei, and Zhengzhou. (3) The population of children aged 0-4 years plays a decisive role in the spatial distribution of childcare institutions. Per capita disposable income of urban residents, the labor participation rate, and average household size serve as auxiliary factors influencing this spatial variation. While the average household size generally has a negative influence, other factors positively affect the distribution. As city tiers decrease, the impact of these auxiliary factors lessens, with minimal influence on fifth-tier cities. In conclusion, the study offers targeted recommendations for the development of China's childcare services industry.