Three-dimensional fine characterization of soil pollutant distribution is critical for the implementation of precision remediation and scientific decision making in the management of contaminated sites. This review systematically examined key issues and research progress in this field through a trinity framework of non-stationarity decoupling, data bias correction, and model selection. We identified the spatial non-stationarity of pollutant concentrations and the inherent biases in sparse borehole data as two fundamental constraints that affect the accuracy of existing three-dimensional characterization models and the reliability of characterization results. We first analyzed the formation mechanisms and types of non-stationarity and discussed non-stationarity quantification and decoupling methods. Second, we summarized the principal sources of sampling bias in the collection of sparse biased drilling data and its bias correction method system. We also assessed the adaptability of different models to biased data and possible improvement. Third, we compared the advantages and limitations of the three predominant modeling paradigms (geostatistical, machine learning, and geochemical process models), analyzed the discrepancies and uncertainties in three-dimensional characterization model selection, and stressed the need for constructing a multi-source data-driven high-precision three-dimensional characterization system based on the trinity relationship framework. Finally, in combination with the development of intelligent decision-making technologies, we prospected the potential application of three-dimensional characterization technology in pollution diagnosis, risk assessment, and sustainable remediation. We also emphasize the potential value of model integration and dynamic optimization in soil pollution control. This methodological synthesis provides a reference for improving the accuracy of three-dimensional characterization of soil pollution distribution in complex sites and digital governance mode.

Under the background of global climate change and intensified human activities, China's hilly and mountainous areas, as the core implementation area of the "beautiful countryside construction" strategy and the key development area of transportation arteries and hydropower hubs, have become the regions with the most complex disaster-breeding environment for flash floods, the most significant disaster-causing effects, and the highest exposure of disaster-affected elements. However, existing research lacks a systematic collation and summary of the framework of flash flood disaster prevention and control theory and technology under the new situation of frequent extreme weather events. This review article started from the spatial characteristics of flash flood disasters in China and the major deployment concepts of national prevention policies, compared international research results, comprehensively examined the important progress and practical achievements of flash flood water-sediment processes and theories and prevention and control technology research, analyzed the impact of climate change on flash flood disasters and the future trend of disaster risks and proposes five scientific challenges for flash flood disaster prevention and control under climate change. It also proposed five targeted preventive measures and suggestions from the perspectives of water-sediment process mechanism research, forecasting and warning technology, comprehensive prevention and control technology, and capacity building. aiming to continuously strengthen research on the basic theory and prevention principles of flash floods in China, promote the intelligentization, digitization, and modernization of the comprehensive defense capabilities and systems against flash floods, and comprehensively enhance the new quality productivity of disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief in the new era, as well as the resilience level of urban communities and engineering construction.

The study of rural spatial distribution, an important aspect of rural research, has great significance in supporting comprehensive rural revitalization and integrated urban-rural development. Previous studies have mainly focused on distribution and factors. With the deepening of relevant research, the connotation of rural spatial distribution has become increasingly rich, where factor study has gradually expanded to an element study, which requires urgent restructure of overview framework. This overview presents the basic concepts of rural spatial distribution at two levels. The evolution of modern research was analyzed in chronological order, and changes in the number of publications, field distribution, and topic distribution in recent years were statistically analyzed using a literature database. Subsequently, based on the two-level meaning of rural spatial distribution, the research content was summarized into four types of units: natural geographic units, administrative regional units, professional characteristic units, and rural element units. Finally, looking ahead to the future research in this area. The conclusions were as follows. The study of modern rural spatial distribution in China is divided into five stages according to the timeline: before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the early years of the People's Republic of China, after the reform and opening up, the early 21^st century, and the new era of socialism. Recently, an overall increase has been observed in the number of related publications. A multidisciplinary intersecting system centered on geography and integrating agriculture, economy, tourism, and architecture was formed from a macro-geographic perspective, which encompasses four research themes. Significant differences were noted in rural spatial distribution across different natural geographical units, where the administrative level affects the distribution characteristics and reorganization modes. Meanwhile, professional characteristic units conformed to important geographical spatial distribution patterns in China. Additionally, various rural elements revealed spatial differentiation in terms of land use and industry distance. In summary, it is recommended to establish a research system for natural geographic units as soon as possible; expand multiple-term research; conduct in-depth analysis of the influencing factors of administrative regional units; conduct cross-administrative research; explore the commonalities of rural spatial characteristics; enrich research on professional characteristic units; introduce new elements such as digitization, intelligence, and networking; and strengthen research on various element units. The significant contribution of this study is that it not only systematically sorts out the concept and development process of rural spatial distribution, but also analyzes the research status and integrates the content into four types of units. In addition, it prospectively guides future research and provides solid theoretical and practical guidance.

Special industries are being developed to revitalize rural areas. Aromatic tourism is a special industry that is important for expanding agricultural functions, increasing the economic value of rural services, innovating business formats, and promoting the in-depth development and integration of the first, second, and third industries: agriculture, culture, and tourism, respectively. Aromatic tourism is an increasingly strong driver of rural revitalization. This article thoroughly covers the concept of and research progress on aromatic tourism. CiteSpace 6.3.1 was used to analyze the knowledge map of domestic and international research on aromatic tourism. Aspects such as aromatic plant resources, the cultural value of aromatic festivals, and the integration and development of the aromatic industry and tourism were reviewed. The following results were obtained: 1) Research on aromatic plant resources, with aromatic plants as the core subject, mainly focused on how to effectively use their unique resource advantages to promote and optimize the tourism industry development. 2) Aromatic festivals and their cultural value have been researched different perspectives; however, the research has mostly focused on the perception of tourists regarding activities at tourist destinations. Historical periods differ in their manifestations of aromatic culture, which is inherently culturally valuable. 3) The research on integrating the aromatic industry and tourism has mainly explored the various applications of aromatic products in tourism scenes; the overall effects of aromatic tourism on the economy, society, culture, and ecology; and the pathway to deeply integrating the two industries. A research framework for aromatic tourism was constructed from three development levels: new directions for aromatic tourism research; new paths for integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism; and new fields for the rural revitalization strategy. Suggestions are proposed for developing aromatic tourism from the perspectives of optimizing the allocation and development of aromatic tourism resources; integrating and developing aromatic culture and tourism; innovating pathways for developing aromatic tourism products; conducting multidimensional research on aromatic tourism; identifying methods of integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism through aromatic tourism; and creating new areas for promoting rural revitalization strategies through aromatic tourism. Finally, research themes of aromatic tourism should be further deepened, research on the integration of aromatic tourism should be focused., and the mechanisms through which multiple industries can be integrated with aromatic tourism should be studied in depth. Research methods should be innovated to provide scientific and technological support for the aromatic industry. The integration of multiple disciplines should be deepened to comprehensively evaluate the benefits and form a more comprehensive understanding of the aromatic industry.

Abstract: Continental Shelf Delimitation in Global Ocean Governance: Legal, geopolitical, and Resource Dimensions. Continental shelf delimitation constitutes a central issue in global ocean governance because it directly involves sovereignty claims, access to marine resources, and stability of the international geopolitical order. With the increasing assertion of maritime rights by late-developing coastal states, tension between traditional maritime powers and emerging maritime nations has become increasingly visible. Against this backdrop, continental shelf delimitation practices have become testing grounds and catalysts for the evolution of maritime boundary governance, reflecting a dynamic interplay between international law, resource politics, and technological advancements in marine science. Research Purpose and Methods: This study provides a systematic review of the literature on continental shelf delimitation, with an emphasis on states' claims concerning sovereignty, resource entitlements, and geopolitical order. Through a comparative analysis of legal texts, judicial precedents, and case studies of disputes in different maritime regions, this review highlights commonalities and divergences in state practice. It also identifies the key obstacles faced by coastal states when invoking the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the principle of natural prolongation. Methodologically, this study relies on a doctrinal legal analysis combined with geopolitical interpretation, which enables an integrated understanding of how law and politics jointly shape the delimitation process. Results Three major findings emerged from this review. 1) Resource-based conflicts: Continental shelf areas are often rich in hydrocarbons, fisheries, and other marine resources. However, the transboundary and mobile nature of these resources makes them frequent sources of interstate conflicts. Fishery disputes in the North Atlantic, hydrocarbon competition in the Eastern Mediterranean, and overlapping claims in the Arctic illustrate how cross-border resource flows challenge stable delimitation and lead to the complex interweaving of multilateral negotiations and contested ownership. 2) Multidimensional boundary perceptions: Delimitation cannot be reduced to the purely geological question of natural prolongation. Coastal states are increasingly invoking historical rights, security concerns, and geopolitical spatial strategies to construct composite claims. The integration of legal, historical, and political arguments reflects the multilayered nature of contemporary maritime governance and demonstrates that boundary-making is as much a political process as it is a legal-technical exercise. 3) Limitations of the UNCLOS: Although the UNCLOS provides the principal legal framework for delimitation, its practical application is limited. The insufficient operationalization of natural prolongation rules, coupled with the inconsistent reliance on judicial precedents by international courts and tribunals, creates significant uncertainty. These gaps hinder coastal states from asserting sovereignty and fairly distributing resources, particularly late-developing maritime nations that lack the technical and legal capacity to substantiate their claims. Conclusion and Research Contributions: In light of these findings, this study proposes three directions for future research and the normative development of global ocean governance. First, the principle of natural prolongation should be re-examined and strengthened as a natural legal basis for dispute resolution, ensuring that geological realities continue to inform legal outcomes. Second, the continuity of historical rights should be incorporated into interpretive logic consistent with customary international law, recognizing that long-standing practices form part of legitimate maritime entitlements. Third, the interpretive gaps in UNCLOS should be supplemented by documenting and theorizing coastal states' practices, thereby enabling a more inclusive process of consensus building in global maritime rule making. This study contributes to the literature by offering a structured synthesis of the key legal, political, and resource-related dimensions of continental shelf delimitation. It highlights the ways in which boundary disputes reflect competing national interests and shape the evolution of the international maritime order. By bridging doctrinal analysis with geopolitical perspectives, this study underscores the need for adaptive governance mechanisms that can accommodate established powers and rising coastal states in the rapidly changing global ocean governance seascape.

Network analysis is increasingly widely applied, but its intrinsic research gradually encounters bottlenecks due to challenges in data acquisition, complexity, and diversity. This study reviewed network thinking and network analysis methods, proposes potential boundaries of network research, systematically examines and deconstructs the developmental trajectory and various levels of geographical network research, analyzes its research trends and breakthroughs, and identifies key issues and future research directions. The study highlighted that network analysis is both a scientific way of thinking emphasizing abstract, systematic, and relational perspectives and a scientific method for analyzing complex system structures; but network research has certain boundaries. Since its introduction to geography in the 1960s, network analysis has evolved into three levels—theory, object, and method—playing a differentiated role in geographical knowledge production and forming a research trend primarily focused on non-social connections between non-social nodes. Breakthroughs have been achieved in four areas: cognition and thinking, scientific theory and mechanism analysis, methods and data, and real-world perspectives and significance. Geographic network research faces four key challenges: 1) insufficient application, 2) development of network thinking, 3) theoretical models, inadequate mechanism analysis, difficulties in data collection and incomplete representation, and 4) singular perspectives in network measurement coupled with outdated methodology and techniques. Future directions include exploring five areas of research: 1) constructing and integrating comprehensive geographical network theories, 2) developing new methods tailored for geographical network analysis, 3) enhancing data acquisition pathways for geographical network research, 4) improving measurement perspectives in geographical network studies, and 5) advancing the application and practical methodologies of research outcomes.

As an important economic form for the innovation and development of human society, since the 21st century, the low-altitude economy has become one of the key ways to promote China's modern industrial development, with its unique charm and broad application prospects. Research on the low-altitude economy of manned vehicles has a long history. However, this research is still growing; and there are many ambiguities within the human-cultural research of low-altitude economies. Therefore, it is necessary to review the existing results so as to promote the development of a theoretical and methodological system for low-altitude economic research. Based on data from the Web of Science (WOS), Scoups, and CNKI databases with the low-altitude economy as the research theme, the CiteSpace software was used to comprehensively sort out the publication status, research content, and research lineage of domestic and foreign low-altitude economy research. This study analyzes and summarizes the characteristics of the publication, subject matter, and characteristics and trends of the various phases. The results show that: (1) Although the leading figures and research teams of domestic and foreign low-altitude economy research have initially appeared, there are fewer cross-institutional academic contacts and a broad academic consensus is yet to be formed. (2) There are also differences in the development history and research characteristics of domestic and foreign low-altitude economy research, but in the early stage of the research, the focus is mainly on general aviation. It then moves to a new era of drone dominance that is centered on the low-altitude economy after 2010. (3) As is, foreign studies have focused on, for example, the exploration of UAV models and their engineering technology, UAV traffic management systems, UAV application scenarios. On the contrary, Chinese studies focus on the reflection and summary of the reform of low-altitude airspace, construction of UAV systems and their industrial development, etc. (4) The directional shift of the low-altitude economy from the natural space to the human-cultural space is an important feature in this growth period but the current low-altitude economy research on human culture is still in the trial phase. Therefore, it is recommended that scholars establish a scientific system suitable for the development of low-altitude economies in China, expand research perspectives and interdisciplinary cooperation, and strengthen extensive communication and exchanges among scholars, which helps construct a diversified inter-institutional, interdisciplinary, and inter-geographical cooperation network. In addition, it will deeply excavate the human-earth relations and spatial organization concepts in the study of low-altitude economies and integrate natural-social-economic-humanities perspectives on intelligent, synergistic, and sustainable development of UAVs, as well as systematically expose the UAV industry chain, UAV-related supporting facilities, market consumption, and public attitudes. This study aims to accelerate the high-quality development of China's low-altitude economy and comprehensively promote its modern development.

Coastal nebkhas are an important component of coastal sand dune ecosystems, widely distributed at varying scales, and the key subject of coastal aeolian geomorphology research. This paper systematically reviewed the morphological characteristics, developmental evolution, and dynamic processes of coastal nebkhas, summarizing the major advancements in research and technical methods both domestically and internationally. Key findings include: the establishment of dune developmental stages based on the correlation of dune morphological parameters (horizontal scale and height); the volume of coastal nebkhas is related to wind and sand activity, ocean dynamics, and biological factors; the dune formation mechanism is a coupled process consisting of wind-driven dynamics, sand source supply, and vegetation stabilization, with coastal environments indirectly influencing dunes through vegetation and wind-sand interactions; the relative importance of different factors varies across regions during dune development; airflow and its interaction with shrub dunes exhibit significant differences in various dune parts, with windward slopes generating reflective eddies that enhance wind speed, and leeward slopes forming horizontal and vertical vortices. Vegetation species type, coverage, density, and distribution all affect near-surface wind-sand movement, with the highest sand deposition typically occurring near vegetation on the windward slopes, where sand transport decreases. A technical approach combining observational and simulation studies has shaped the research, especially with the recent application of new technologies, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle measurement systems and computer simulations, which have significantly advanced the study of coastal nebkha morphology, airflow structure, and sediment transport patterns. However, current research faces three main limitations: an incomplete understanding of the development mechanisms of coastal nebkhas, and a need for deeper exploration into their dynamic mechanisms. In the future, the focus should be on combining traditional observations with modern emerging technologies to strengthen the study of the main limiting factors and their interaction mechanisms during the formation and development of nebkhas and deepen the understanding of their formation and development mechanisms in China. Through comprehensive field surveys, typical investigations, and morphological measurements of key distribution areas of coastal shrub dunes, multi-scale, long-term, continuous dynamic monitoring should be conducted. It is important to analyze the formation and evolution mechanisms of coastal nebkhas in different regions, providing a scientific basis for cross-regional dune management and protection. A comprehensive study of the joint action mechanisms of wind dynamics, hydrodynamics, particle adhesion, and biological forces is essential to reveal the spatiotemporal dynamic evolution patterns of coastal nebkhas in China, both annually and inter-annually. Furthermore, the influence mechanisms of vegetation ecological processes, human activities, and climate change on coastal nebkhas should be emphasized, addressing the gaps in domestic research and improving the research framework for coastal aeolian geomorphology in China.

With the ongoing advancement of digital technology and its application in rural areas, "digital village" has become one of the focal points in the field of geography. This study provided a definition and connotation of "digital village" based on a summary and analysis of existing literature. It reviewed the frontiers of research in China and internationally and offered a comparison from the perspective of knowledge production. The findings include: 1) In China, research predominantly focuses on normative studies aimed at addressing real-world issues in rural development and promoting policy optimization. The construction of digital village is seen as a means to facilitate high-quality rural development, with a concentration on how to leverage digital village initiatives to support rural revitalization and the rural restructuring resulting from the development of digital village. 2) The international studies are primarily empirical and tend to explain micro social phenomena. By examining specific issues such as the digital divide between urban and rural areas, these studies highlight various dimensions of digitization in the rural transformation process, particularly focusing on the formation of the urban-rural digital divide and its impact on coordinated urban-rural development. From a geographical perspective, future research could further address the following aspects: Re-thinking of the concept of digital village from the perspective of human-environment relationship, quantitative measurement of the urban-rural digital divide from a multi-spatial scale perspective, examination of digital village from the micro-actor perspective, and investigation of the positive and negative externalities of digital village construction based on a comprehensive research paradigm in geography.

To promote the implementation of the Paris Agreement and achieve the "Dual Carbon Goals", China aims to develop sustainability transitions in production, lifestyle, and consumption, shifting away from its current socio-technical system reliant on the petrochemical energy. Sustainability transitions involve replacing outdated technological systems with new ones. However, this process inevitably triggers negative social consequences, potentially exacerbating social injustice and inequalities. Therefore, the challenge of achieving a "spatially just transition" has become a key issue in economic geography. This study examines international (English-speaking) studies on sustainability transitions and particularly explores the background, themes, and characteristics of related geographical research through bibliometric analysis. The study found the following. (1) Research on transitions is characterized by a strong geographical emphasis. It originated in the early 21st Century from Western old industrial cities and resource-based regions, where the adoption of green technologies as a key mean for industrial transformation. While green technologies did alleviate environmental problems while it also brought about new social problems (such as, unemployment and poverty among traditional workers) and widened social injustices. (2) The concept of just transition currently lacks a unified definition, theoretical framework, and empirical viewpoints. Due to its late entry into the field, related research in geography remains on the periphery of mainstream academic discourse on just transition. In spite of that, geographical perspectives and concepts such as "place," "scale," and "spatiotemporal context" are gradually gaining recognition. (3) The theoretical discourse of just transition has been constructed and dominated by Western developed countries, with insufficient consideration and theoretical reflection on the practical experiences and contextual characteristics of developing countries and regions. However, as China is currently the world's largest driver of transition and a leading promoter of urban/regional pilot initiatives, the geography of just transition holds significant potential for empirical exploration and theoretical reconfiguration. This paper argues that Chinese geographers should seize the historical opportunity to focus on localized transition practices under national policy frameworks such as the Common Prosperity Strategy and the Ecological Civilization Construction. Particular attention should be paid to the transformation of peripheral and less-favored regions or "left-behind places"—such as old industrial areas, resource-dependent cities, and ecologically fragile regions—and their associated social justice challenges during green transitions. Moreover, just transition research should be positioned as a critical topic in current and future studies addressing regional uneven development.

Influenced by the rapid increase in labor costs and the decline in the comparative benefits of grain planting, the phenomenon of Non-Grain Use of Cultivated Land (NGUCL) in China has become increasingly prominent. Firstly, from the perspective of cultivated land marginalization, this study combines the theory of cultivated land marginalization, the theory of land rent, and the theory of farmers' behavior to jointly analyze the theoretical basis for the occurrence of NGUCL. Secondly, it systematically reviews the research progress regarding NGUCL, and finally presents prospects for future research. The study shows that: (1) At the level of theoretical analysis, the theory of cultivated land marginalization clarifies the core driving force and the realistic background of NGUCL. In the context of marginalization, the theory of land rent can explain the logic of choosing the location of NGUCL, and the theory of farmers' behavior can explain how differences in farmers' characteristics affect the occurrence of NGUCL. (2) The definition of NGUCL has been evolving and deepening, and at the present stage, the "food-crop ratio" is still the main indicator, but there are certain limitations in this way of measurement. (3) Under the constraints of production factors and policy incentives, the degree of NGUCL shows a fluctuating increase and is characterized by significant spatial differentiation. Among them, mountainous areas, food production and marketing zones, production and marketing balance zones, urban and peri-urban areas are among the areas in which NGUCL happens all the time. (4) While cultivated land marginalization is the main driving force of NGUCL, the occurrence of NGUCL is also affected by a combination of factors, such as natural endowment, which affects the appropriateness of cultivation, the characteristics of farmers, which affects the degree of farmers' demand for NGUCL, and national policies, which gradually slow down the process of NGUCL. (5) NGUCL has complex implications for ecosystems, food security and farmers' livelihoods. 6. The use control of cultivated land is the main measure in China to regulate NGUCL, but the sustainability of this measure is open to question. In the face of the rapid expansion of the cultivated land marginalization in China and the new requirements for the construction of a diversified food supply system, it is urgent to reconstruct the traditional cognition and research paradigm of NGUCL. In the future, we need to focus on the synergistic analysis of multi-stage, multi-scale and multi-subjects, and explore the evolution process, occurrence mechanism and governance mode of NGUCL.

With the rapid development of tourism, conflicts between the protection and utilization of tourist destinations have become increasingly prominent. The effective promotion of sustainable development of tourist destinations has become an important issue in academic circles. The essence of the conflict between the protection and utilization of tourist destinations is the disharmony and imbalance between the protection and utilization of tourist destinations. The root cause of this conflict is the restriction of the policy system and the difference in the interest demands of multiple subjects in the protection and utilization of tourist space resources, which leads to various disputes, contradictions, or opposites. Based on a review of relevant research at home and abroad, this study systematically reviews and summarizes the conceptual connotation, basic theory, identification and classification, feature analysis, occurrence mechanism, and adaptive governance of the conflict between tourism destination protection and utilization. The results show the following: 1) Based on a multidisciplinary perspective, scholars have enriched and refined the conceptual connotation and basic theory of the conflict between tourism destination protection and utilization, have gradually paid attention to the specific demand conflict between different stakeholders in tourism destination protection and utilization, and have attempted to reveal its intrinsic nature and development trends; 2) In terms of identification and classification, owing to the significant differences in research areas and perspectives, the types of conflict between the protection and utilization of tourist destinations also show a diversified trend; 3) Researchers mainly analyze features from the perspectives of subject, time, and space, and the conflicts between tourism destination protection and utilization are characterized by diverse interest subjects, complex spaces, and stages; 4) In terms of the occurrence mechanism, the research mainly explored the driving factors from the macro perspectives of policy system, environment, economy, and social culture, and micro perspectives of subjects' cognition, attitude, and behavior. The macro policy system and micro-subject perceptions were the focus of this study; 5) In terms of adaptive governance, research countermeasures mainly promote the organic combination of macrospatial governance and microsubject regulation to achieve the effect of adaptive governance. Macro-spatial governance provides an overall framework and directional guidance for the development of tourism destinations, while micro-subject regulation ensures that all stakeholders can act reasonably within this framework and jointly promote the sustainable development of tourism destinations. And finally, this research proposes that future research should include supplementing and improving the theoretical system of tourism destination protection and utilization conflict in the context of social change, expanding and deepening the research content of tourism destination protection and utilization conflict in the context of sustainable development, strengthening the research method innovation of tourism destination protection and utilization conflict with the support of geospatial information technology, and promoting the integration of tourism destination protection and utilization conflict in the perspective of multidisciplinary integration, combined analysis and application of results.

Promoting urban-rural integration is a critical pathway for coordinating China's new urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization and is essential for achieving socialist modernization and common prosperity. Currently, urban-rural integration is at a key transitional stage, making it vital to systematically review and synthesize existing research. This study employed CiteSpace software to visually analyze 2,164 papers on urban-rural integration between 2002 and 2023 from the CNKI database. The analysis comprehensively presents research progress in terms of publication volume, authors, institutions, research areas, hot topics, evolution trajectories, and frontier trends, while also providing insights into future development trends. This study reveals that, over the past two decades, domestic research on urban-rural integration has shown significant and sustained growth driven by policy initiatives. However, the field has not yet formed a stable core group of authors and collaboration among researchers remains relatively limited and is often confined to intra-institutional partnerships. The key research themes focused on the evolution and development of urban-rural relations, the connotations and significance of urban-rural integration, the connection between urban-rural integration and rural revitalization, influencing factors, and development paths. The research evolution can be divided into four stages: early exploration, gradual development, consolidation and deepening, and expansion and innovation. Over the past three years, research frontiers have focused on poverty alleviation, metropolitan area construction, and the exploration of development paths. Current research shortcomings include the following. (1) Insufficient analysis of regional types and scale differences: the research lacks a comprehensive multiscale framework and does not adequately focus on special geographical spaces. Studies on the mechanisms of urban-rural interconnection and coordinated development between regions are also weak; (2) An analysis of multiple factors influencing urban-rural integration is lacking: current research has not sufficiently explored obstructive factors, the interactions between these factors, their combined effects, or regional heterogeneity; (3) The multidimensional evaluation system and data application are inadequate: traditional data sources lack timeliness and comprehensiveness and evaluation indicators have overlapping issues and insufficient representativeness; and (4) Integration of interdisciplinary perspectives is insufficient: much of the research has been limited to single-discipline approaches and lacks comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis. This study proposes the following recommendations: (1) Strengthen multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional, and multi-scale research: this includes enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration, innovating theories and methods, and building multilevel research systems to explore the spatial and temporal evolution of urban-rural integration across different scales; (2) Deepen research on the coupling and coordination between new types of urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization: this involves exploring coordination mechanisms, refining the flow of key elements, discovering new models of urban-rural industrial integration, and promoting cultural exchange and integration; (3) Strengthen regional coordination research; expanding research fields, summarizing integration models from different regions, enhancing regional coordination and joint development, and building multiscale regional coordination mechanisms are essential; and (4) Advanced technological innovation and data-driven research: this includes using cutting-edge technologies to reveal trends in urban-rural integration, scientifically predicting urbanization processes, and driving industrial synergy and transformation.

Continental chemical weathering is one of the key processes shaping the Earth's surface morphology, influencing the global material cycle and regulating the global climate. Effectively tracing surface weathering processes has consistently been a focal point within geosciences. Lithium and its isotopes, distinguished by their unique chemical properties, exhibit great potential in tracing continental silicate weathering. This article systematically reviewed the literature and analyzed the fractionation behavior and patterns of lithium isotopes during chemical weathering processes in experimental simulations, weathering profiles, and at the watershed scales. Based on this analysis, the following insights are obtained: 1) The continental weathering process in surface environments is complex, exhibiting a nonlinear relationship between chemical weathering intensity and the δ⁷Li value. 2) Integrative studies of published data indicate that the relationship between the δ⁷Li values of weathered materials and lithium content in highly weathered regions exhibits two patterns (The variation in Li content is limited, yet the δ⁷Li values exhibit significant differentiation; conversely, there is a certain degree of variation in Li content when the differentiation of δ⁷Li values is limited), with the underlying causes requiring further investigation. 3) The red earth region in southern China is an ideal area for weathering research, showing potential in exploring the mechanisms and patterns of lithium isotope fractionation. This article argues that there are still issues in using lithium isotopes as a tracer for chemical weathering, such as insufficient quantitative studies of complex processes, limited multi-scale integrated research, unclear mechanisms of lithium isotopes in highly weathered products, and the lack of a global weathering estimation model. Future efforts should focus on enhancing laboratory simulations, empirical studies, and multi-scale integrated research to further explore the potential of lithium isotope mechanisms in underexplored areas and validate the effectiveness of lithium isotope tracing in chemical weathering through the combined use of multi-isotope systems.