Urbanization is a necessary stage in the process of economic and social development. The current rapid urbanization has promoted the process of land use transitions, which has further triggered various environmental and economic effects. Conducting the coupling study here is to analyze the interactions between land use, its environmental cost, and its economic output based on the unique perspective of land use transition, as well as to further explore possible ways to achieve both environmental protection and economic development through regulations on land use transition. This article reviewed the important progress of research on land use transition and its environmental and economic effects, explored the concept of land use transition in a multidimensional space, and identified the implications and measurements of coupling. From the frontier of disciplines, the coupling of environmental and economic effects of land use transition is essentially a coupling of human activities and natural processes. How to regulate these relationships through land use transitions is an important content of human-environment research in the new era, as well as a major strategic topic for promoting the new urbanization.

New industrial path development is a classic research topic of Economic Geography. The evolutionary turn provides some novel perspectives for understanding such devleopment. However, the classic theory of Evolutionary Economic Geography mainly focuses on the core areas with superior advantages and successful development experience, and maintains that the development of new industries is based on the specific factors formed by history, thus is unsuitable for explaining the development trajectory of new industries in the peripheries, which are characterized by weak industrial foundation, labor shortage, and low level of knowledge and technology. Therefore, based on the life cycle, windows of locational opportunity (space), and related diversity and unrelated diversity literature, this review summarized the differences and connections between the core and the periphery, and the process of the new industrial path development in the peripheries. The formation of the new industrial path development in the peripheries is jointly affected by industrial heterogeneity, multi-scalar connection, entry method, and agency: 1) Industries characterized by gradual innovation, mature development stage, interactive learning, or special requirements are more likely to develop in the peripheries. 2) The occurrence of such development relies more on the strengthening of multi-scalar interaction and external connection. 3) The entry of such industries often takes the path of transplantation, branching, and extension. 4) The formation and strengthening of new industrial path development often result from the agency of multiple actors. Through identifying and seizing development opportunities, these actors try to match the development requirements of new industries. Finally, this article discussed aspects of future research according to the context of China's transformation period and the core-peripheral relationship.

Seasonal cycle is the crucial intraannual climate pattern to be observed in global and regional agricultural practice. Under global warming, the global surface has witnessed a significant increase in temperature over nearly half a century. As a result, various parameters associated with surface air temperatures, such as the lengths, start dates, and end dates of the four seasons, also changed dramatically. This study examined the following aspects: 1) It summarized the three types of season definition methods, including astronomical, meteorological, and phenological methods; absolute and relative temperature threshold methods; and other methods characterized by regional geographic factors and specific weather phenomena. 2) This study conducted an analysis on the long-term seasonal variation characteristics in the lower-middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the South China region during 1961-2015, using different seasonal division methods based on air temperature and analyzing the characteristics and differences in summer length calculated by different temperature indices. It also reviewed the characteristics of seasonal length changes in historical periods defined by different indicators and the future projected trends, and summarized the key reasons for seasonal length changes. 3) This study evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of each seasonal division method from their fields of application and spatial applicability. Future research is prospected from the possible impact of data bias, the development of a commonly applicable index, and the mechanism of change under climate warming. The results of this study have clarified the differences of seasonal division methods, as well as the characteristics and causes of seasonal changes. This not only is beneficial for guiding agricultural production, but also provides reliable scientific information for addressing the climate change issue.

This study aims to survey the literature and factual evidence on the nexus between deforestation and agriculture through an assessment of the potential impacts of climate change in the context of the world, India, and the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats region was chosen for this study because of its deep ecological significance. A few underlying themes were created and findings were documented under each theme that ranged from the causes of deforestation, the transformation of forest land for agriculture, the nexus between agriculture, deforestation and climate change, climate-driven agricultural vulnerability and the reconciliation of forest protection with agriculture. These findings suggest that shifting agriculture has been a dominant source of deforestation. The primary climatic impacts on agriculture are seen through crop yield falls. India’s arid and semiarid tropical regions have witnessed high climate-driven agricultural sensitivity. This could be on account of the fact that India’s tropical forests have witnessed high deforestation. The presence of higher tree densities in areas under Joint Forest Planning and Management in the Western Ghats create the potential for sparing remaining land areas for non-forest uses such as agriculture.

Rafting recreation is one of the forms of ecotourism mainly based on river and lake recreation sports, and rafters, rafting water, rafting industry and rafting environment are the symbiotic subjects constituting the rafting recreation system. This paper uses CiteSpace visualization and analysis software, and draws on the theory of “four-component system of ecotourism”, and then analyzes the relevant research results of Web of Science, and finally reaches the following conclusions: The research on rafting recreation lags behind the practice in general, and there was an obvious discontinuity before the 1990s. The research covers the heterogeneity, motivation, experience perception, physical and mental impacts of rafters, scenic river system, flow rate and water quality, rafting safety management, product development and sustainable development of the industry, and the requirements of facilities and activity control in rafting sites. In general, the research perspective has shifted from focusing on the realization of the single goal of the “four-component” to taking into account the elements, and then to the synergy of multiple goals, but the unidimensional study of the “four-component” needs to be deepened, and the synergistic relationship and interaction mechanism with the external environment of the “four-component” need to be improved. It is suggested that China’s rafting recreation research should learn from existing achievements, further deepen the unidimensional research on the “four-component”, and at the same time strengthen the systematic view of the “people-environment-industry” symbiosis, expand the research on the synergistic mechanism of the “four-component” as well as on the mutual influence between the “four-component” and the external environment, so as to provide scientific references for the development of ecotourism in rivers and lakes, as well as for the construction of river and lake protected area systems.

[Objective] Due to differences in economic and technological development levels, post-harvest losses (PHL) in different stages of the grain value chain varies greatly across the world. Identifying the extent of PHL and the influencing factors globally can provide crucial information for food loss reduction in China. [Methods] This study focused on grain harvest losses and selected 98 relevant publications according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We constructed a database of international publications on grain PHL, including academic papers and research reports on four types of grain crops (rice, corn, wheat, and soybean). [Results] The results show that the attention to PHL of grains is increasing globally in the past decades, but focused mainly on the developing countries and regions in Asia, Africa, and South America. On average, the post-harvest grain losses at the global level are 6.651%, but heterogeneity of grain harvest losses existed in different countries due to factors such as climate, harvest methods, technical conditions, and labor quality. Although the introduction of mechanized harvesting has improved the production efficiency, the impacts of non-standard operation and the use of third-party contractor services on harvest losses cannot be ignored. The lack of research on combine harvester performance also limited the application of mechanization technologies. Besides, equipment and facility shortages in the stages of drying and storage also led to increased PHL. [Conclusion] Therefore, we suggest paying more attention to the research of mechanical harvest technologies and operation methods, as well as renewing and revising technical standards continuously and improve the infrastructure environment for harvesting according to domestic economic conditions and industrial development. This study also provided detailed information and policy recommendations for PHL reduction in China.

Infrastructure investment and construction is an important factor for understanding socioeconomic development. As the large-scale cross-border infrastructure investment and construction continue to thrive in recent years, however, it is not unusual to find those failed to achieve sustainable development. Such infrastructure-led development model is increasingly questioned. This article reviewed different conceptualizations and characteristics of infrastructure and infrastructure-led development model, and examined relevant Chinese and international research focusing on the theoretical assumptions, bases, and explanation of mechanism through time: 1) During the Keynesian period, infrastructure as public goods matched national policies and provided key support for industrial and social development. 2) In the neoliberal era, infrastructure, on the one hand as an "input factor of production", influenced socioeconomic development by external effects; and on the other hand, as a "component" embedded in the socioeconomic system, adapted to and adjusted the socioeconomic environment. 3) In the post-neoliberal period, the mutual influence between complicated infrastructure and the socioeconomic environment reveals that their relationships are a dynamic process rather than simply promoting or suppressing. Therefore, combined with the theory of co-evolution, this article proposed a research framework of "infrastructure-institutions and culture-industry and trade foundations" co-evolution for sustainable development-oriented infrastructure investment and construction practices.

[Objective] Mineral resources are the foundation of national economic development and the important guarantee of national security, and their security problems have become increasingly prominent. It is of great significance to systematize the research on mineral resource security. [Methods] This study took the publications on mineral resource security published by Chinese scholars from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), and Web of Science databases as samples. By using bibliometric analysis, content analysis, and literature induction methods and visualized knowledge network analysis tools such as CiteSpace, the current situation, evolution, and hotspots of mineral resource security research are discussed. [Results] The results show that the research contents in the mineral resource security field are diversified and cover a broad range of themes. The development showed an inverted U-shaped trend and has experienced three stagesthe initial period, the rapid growth period, and the transitional development period. The research hotspots include exploration and utilization of mineral resources, security of mineral resource industrial chain and supply chain, mineral resource strategy, and international research on mineral resource security. [Conclusion] The sustainable supply of mineral resources throughout the industrial chain, risk assessment, construction of strategic development pattern, efficient recycling, among other aspects may become the research hotspots and challenges in the field of mineral resource security in the future. Meanwhile, the research on the exploration, development, and utilization of mineral resources, mineral resource security strategy, coordination mechanism between mineral resource benefits and environment protection should be strengthened, in order to provide a theoretical basis for further improving the mineral resource security system.

Small towns occupy a vital position in the urban and rural settlement system and are one of the main settlement types of humankind. Since the middle of the twentieth century, small towns in Western developed countries have gradually started transitional development. Their overall decline and differentiated development have become a universal phenomenon worldwide. With the increasing interaction between urban and rural areas and global mobility, small towns are increasingly influenced by forces at the regional, national, and global scales. Therefore, this study systematically examined the relevant studies on the transformation and development of small towns in developed countries and summarized the processes and patterns of their transformation and development based on the perspective of multi-scalar characteristic and rescaling from the four dimensions of economy, society, culture, and policy, with the hope to provide a reasonable explanation for the transformation and development of small towns in developed countries. This study holds that small towns have a multi-scalar characteristic and can be embodied by ladder scale, nested scale, and network scale metaphors. The transformation and development of small towns contain the process of scale production and reproduction and can be further divided into four dimensions of economy, society, culture, and policy. Under the background of globalization and urbanization, the original core-periphery structure of small towns is undergoing a trans-scale and networked scale restructuring process. Some small towns tend to decline in this process, while others can become nodes in the global network scale, achieve a development transition in the ladder scale, and expand the hinterland in a nested scale. Finally, this article argued that it is necessary to pay attention to the differences in different contexts when we examine the transformation and development of small towns in China based on the rescaling theory. There is still a considerable gap in the research on the pluralistic differentiation and transformation and development of small towns in China, which urgently needs to be supplemented by theoretical research of urban and rural geography to provide theoretical support for the planning and construction of small towns in China.

[Objective] Under the background of achieving global carbon neutrality, clean energy technologies are booming and the demand for critical metals and the industrial carbon emissions will rise sharply. [Methods] To further clarify the driving mechanism, methodological framework, and carbon emission reduction pathways of the critical metal industry chain under the clean energy transition, this study systematically reviewed and integrated the relevant research from the perspectives of systematic nexus and the whole industry chain. [Results] We found that clean energy transition induces the terminal demand for critical metals from the demand side and reduces the carbon emission intensity from the supply side, which jointly drive the industrial carbon emissions; it is required to integrate a variety of methods and models to calculate and predict the carbon emissions of the critical metal industry chain, and we should select suitable research methods according to the research objects; existing research mainly focuses on carbon emission reduction pathways in the smelting and recycling stages, and has not systematically identified the pathways from the viewpoint of the whole industry chain yet. [Conclusion] In the future, based on the metal-energy-carbon nexus theory and integrated methods, it is necessary to further verify the internal mechanism and study the trends of carbon emissions in the critical metal industry chain. Furthermore, it is essential to systematically design and identify the carbon reduction pathways from the whole industry chain with the “China factor” incorporated, providing a realistic basis and decision-making reference for achieving the goal of carbon neutrality.

Adopting the CiteSpace knowledge graph method, this paper analyzes the research progress of international ethnic tourism in recent 30 years through Web of Science database. The research results show that the hot spots of international ethnic tourism research have evolved from the concept definition to the sustainable development of ethnic tourism destination and then to the community response of ethnic tourism destination, which can be divided into three stages: exploring, developing and deepening. The research topics mainly focus on the following six areas: the evaluation of the sustainability of ethnic tourism destinations, the authenticity of ethnic tourism, the politicization of ethnic tourism, the cultural heritage of ethnic tourism, the management of ethnic tourism communities and the cultural management of ethnic tourism destinations. It is suggested that academia in China should strengthen the policy orientation, problem orientation and academic foresight of ethnic tourism research, emphasize research on high-quality development and the cultural authenticity of ethnic tourism destinations, as well as cultural stress and cultural resilience of ethnic tourism destinations, thus to accelerate the construction of ethnic tourism research academic discourse system with Chinese characteristics.

Since the 1950s, the urban amenity theory, which was proposed in the Western developed countries, provided a new perspective for cities to enhance talent attraction and urban development. The theory of urban amenity, as a new concept to explain urban sustainable development in the era of globalization and knowledge economy, has been employed in Western countries for nearly 70 years, while China has carried out little research in this area. Currently, since China has entered the "new normal" state of economic development, driving urban development by innovation has become an important subject and realistic challenge that the academic and political circles must face. The theory of urban amenity provides a better theoretical perspective for meeting such challenge. This study used CiteSpace to analyze research on urban amenity. First, it systematically analyzed the framework of international research on urban amenity based on its conception and discussions on its connotation, the formation of urban amenity theory, the establishment of urban amenity evaluation methods, and empirical research on its impact. Second, progress of research in China on urban amenity was systematically summarized from four aspects: the introduction and evaluation of amenity concept, the relationship between amenity and talent flow, the relationship between amenity and innovation output, and urban development and amenities configuration. Finally, on the basis of a brief review of the progress of urban amenity research, and from the perspective of urban development, it is necessary to carry out in-depth research on urban amenity in China. The article also discussed the prospects of using for reference the international urban amenity research ideas and empirical experience in the study of China's urban economic transition, talent migration, and urban planning.

Conservation tillage plays an important role in preventing soil erosion, improving soil quality, and ensuring food security. As farmers are the direct decision makers of conservation tillage technology adoption, studying their adoption behavior and influencing factors can help promote the application of conservation tillage technology. In order to provide a reference for a more effective promotion of conservation tillage technology, this article summarized the research on farmers' conservation tillage technology adoption behavior and influencing factors in China and internationally through a systematic analysis. The results show that different types of farmers have great differences in their adoption behavior of conservation tillage technology. The research area of farmers' adoption of conservation tillage technology is relatively concentrated. The factors that influence farmers' technology adoption behavior mainly include basic factors and differential factors. Based on these analyses, further research directions and outlooks are proposed. They include taking into account the heterogeneity within the farmer group, focusing on the integration of research theories, and strengthening interdisciplinary comprehensive and systematic research.

The transformation and development of urban waterfront space is the key way to promote the optimization of urban space and the adjustment of industrial structure, which has become the main part of the current international urban renewal and redevelopment efforts, and a large number of relevant studies have emerged. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize the existing studies. Taking the relevant publications in the Web of Science and Science Direct databases from 1988 to 2020 as the analysis object, this study systematically examined the research results of the transformation and development of urban waterfront space abroad, summarized and analyzed the research contents and main conclusions from the aspects of the transformation process, mode, motivation and mechanism, and effect. The results show that international studies on the transformation and development of waterfront space mostly used qualitative methods to carry out descriptive analysis of cases, the research themes have shifted from paying attention to practical needs to exploring underlying academic issues and gradually diversified, and the research perspective increasingly emphasizes humanism and the concept of equality. Finally, considering the international research experience and domestic reality, this study proposed that in the future, China should change the research perspective and research object, pay attention to the comparative study of multiple cases in different regions, reveal the transformation process of urban waterfront space, simulate the transformation mechanism of urban waterfront space, and comprehensively evaluate the transformation effect of urban waterfront space, so as to optimize and improve the research system of urban waterfront space in China.

In the era of sustainable development, the ecological impact of the development of the tourism industry has attracted extensive attention from all walks of life. Generally considered, tourism ecological security (TES) is an important link to realize the high-quality development of tourism destinations and promote the construction of ecological civilization. Based on keyword discrimination of TES, tourism ecological risk and tourism ecological health, and from the perspective of ecological civilization construction, this paper uses the databases of Web of Science and CNKI as data sources to systematically comb and analyze TES research from the aspects of development process, research methods and research content, and puts forward the prospects for future research on this basis. This analysis found that research in the TES field presents four main characteristics. (1) The phased characteristic of “germination - exploration - development” is significant, and a relatively standard research framework of “evaluation - influencing factors - early warning - regulation” has been formed. (2) The empirical orientation of the research methods is distinct. (3) The development trend is characterized by small-scale dominance and a large-scale surge. (4) The disciplinary integration and practical combination have been continuously strengthened. Combined with the development trends and hot spots of TES, this paper proposes that the direction and goal of deepening TES research in the future should be carried out from the aspects of strengthening research on thresholds, early warning and regulation, improving the application of big data, constructing the synergistic effect mechanisms between tourism and ecology, and realizing the longitudinal deepening and interconnection of scale research.

As a landscape with special significance, the landscape of fear exists in nature and human society. It has a huge ecological effect in biological system, and also has a profound impact on all aspects of material landscape and collective memory in man-land system. Landscape perception, landscape attitude and the interaction between landscape and human are important topics in contemporary geography research, but the research on the landscape of fear is still weak. Based on this, the study systematically sorts out the concept and research content of the landscape of fear, and discusses its application in tourism geography. The main conclusions of the study include: Firstly, the landscape of fear has formed fear ecology in the research from the perspective of ecology, and it is still in the exploratory stage in other disciplines. Although Tuan Yifu first put forward and studied the landscape of fear thoroughly from the perspective of human geography, the research on humanity society, geography and other related aspects is scattered. On the contrary, it is currently applied to ecological research and has rich research results. This shows that in addition to the maturity of its research in ecology, the landscape of fear in other disciplines remains to be explored. Secondly, under different disciplinary perspectives, the definition and research content of the landscape of fear are different, but in essence, its formation cannot be separated from the influence of subjective fear and external environment. On the one hand, the definition and research content of the landscape of fear in ecology are relatively consistent, which are animal predation risk perception. On the other hand, in other research disciplines, the concept and research content are mainly studied from the presentation form and perception of the landscape of fear between people and place/space. There are some differences in the research of the landscape of fear from different perspectives, but the "fear" perception of it must have an objective object that causes its fear. The landscape of fear is formed by the combination of subjective psychology and objective external. Thirdly, from the relationship among the landscape of fear, tourists and emotion, this paper finds that the application of the landscape of fear in tourism geography mainly focuses on emotional geography, dark tourism and emotional characteristics. There is no clear definition and research on the landscape of fear in tourism geography, but it can reflect the significance of the landscape of fear from the research contents such as emotional experience, dark tourism and memory of the place. Finally, the future prospects of the landscape of fear can be studied in tourism geography are as follows: 1) Based on its particularity, the landscape of fear in tourism geography will be discussed more deeply from different perspectives. 2) The psychological changes and emotional experience of tourists facing the landscape of fear can be studied. The emotional connection between man and land is one of the focuses of tourism geography research, and the landscape of fear integrates the complex emotions between people and landscape. And the emotional expression of the landscape of fear and the psychological impact of the landscape of fear on tourists can be studied. 3) Take dark tourism as the starting point to explore the landscape of fear. Dark tourism inevitably involves the research of tourism geography, and there is a certain connection between dark tourism and the landscape of fear. From the perspective of dark tourism, we can deeply explore the association with the landscape of fear, so as to better integrate the research of the landscape of fear and emotional geography. Although there is still a lack of research on the landscape of fear in humanity society, it has great research space. This paper combs and analyzes the landscape of fear and explores its application in the research of tourism geography, in order to enhance more attention and deepen its research in the field of tourism geography.

The alpine treeline ecotone is defined as a forest-grassland or forest-tundra transition boundary either between subalpine forest and treeless grassland, or between subalpine forest and treeless tundra. The alpine treeline ecotone serves irreplaceable ecological functions and provides various ecosystem services. There are three lines associated with the alpine treeline ecotone, the tree species line (i.e., the highest elevational limit of individual tree establishment and growth), the treeline (i.e., the transition line between tree islands and isolated individual trees) and the timber line (i.e., the upper boundary of the closed subalpine forest). The alpine treeline ecotone is the belt region between the tree species line and the timber line of the closed forest. The treeline is very sensitive to climate change and is often used as an indicator for the response of vegetation to global warming. However, there is currently no comprehensive review in the field of alpine treeline advance under global warming. Therefore, this review summarizes the literature and discusses the theoretical bases and challenges in the study of alpine treeline dynamics from the following four aspects: (1) Ecological functions and issues of treeline dynamics; (2) Methodology for monitoring treeline dynamics; (3) Treeline shifts in different climate zones; (4) Driving factors for treeline upward shifting.